At Williams, we strive to provide various chances for faculty to (re)connect, engage, and collaborate. NetWorking opportunities are open to faculty at particular career stages, more widely, and either to all faculty or by division.

NetWorking Opportunities

• All-Faculty Lunches

  These lunches (a collaborative effort typically facilitated by the Dean of the Faculty's Office and First 3), are held twice in each semester on issues that vary from year to year.  All-faculty lunches typically meet on Fridays at noon in the Faculty Club.  Dates and topics are announced via e-mail a week in advance.  In the past these lunches have addressed writing across the curriculum, grade inflation, the honor code, and the inclusive classroom.For more information, contact Coordinators Nicole Mellow, Phoebe Cohen, or Amy Holzapfel.

• All-Faculty Retreat

  A bi-annual retreat for all faculty, typically in May, that gives faculty to gather and reflect as a larger intellectual community on topics of interest. For more information, contact Associate Dean for Institutional Diversity Jacqueline Hidalgo or Associate Dean of Faculty Sara Dubow.

• Dean of Faculty Special Programming

  Whether in the form of designated lunches for faculty cohorts, regularly scheduled monthly or bi-monthly gatherings for all faculty, or more focused smaller groupings of faculty at various ranks and divisions (e.g. "Middler Mixers" for mid-career faculty), these events provide more individualized or small group attention to faculty at various stages of their professional careers.

• Discussion of Evaluation and Review Processes

  For pre-tenure faculty, as specified in invitations. These group discussions are designed to introduce the procedures for the evaluation of teaching, scholarship/creative endeavors, and service at Williams and to provide an opportunity to ask questions. For more information, contact Jacqueline Hidalgo, Associate Dean for Institutional Diversity.

• Discussion Seminars (Oakley Center)

  Open to Division I and II faculty, see application information. An opportunity to propose a topic for shared readings and discussions, and to assemble a group of faculty to engage in those explorations of new fields of study or methodologies. Faculty from Division III sometimes participate at the invitation of the seminar organizer(s), but the Center's focus is primarily on the Humanities and Social Sciences. For more information, contact Gage McWeeny, Director of the Oakley Center. 

• Discussion Seminars (OIDE)

  A discussion seminar to explore the pedagogical challenges associated with teaching our diverse student body. The seminar, open to all teaching faculty, meets 6-8 times during the semester over wine and cheese at The Davis Center.  We begin with discussion of current research in social justice and multicultural education, then turn to conversations about cases from our own experience. Ideally, the group is made up of faculty from various disciplines and levels of experience. Participants are expected to commit to the entire seminar; a modest stipend of will be paid for participation. For more information, contact Gretchen Long or Christopher Goh, Faculty Fellows of the Davis Center and Office of Institutional Diversity and Equity (OIDE).

• Drop-in Office Hours with Associate Deans

  In Fall 2020, Associate Dean of the Faculty Sara Dubow and Associate Dean of Institutional Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Jacqueline Hidalgo will be holding drop-in office hours on zoom. Dates and details will be published in Daily Messages. 

• First3

  Originally established in 1995 as PET (Project for Effective Teaching), First3, which has evolved continuously over the years, is designed to offer pedagogical insight and professional support to all faculty and fellows in their first three years at Williams. The heart of the First3 program resides in its weekly lunches, which are voluntary, informal and relatively unstructured, and where the coordinators facilitate discussions on a vast array of topics around teaching, both in general and as they relate to our particular classrooms and to our scholarly work. For more information, contact Coordinators Nicole Mellow, Phoebe Cohen, or Amy Holzapfel.

• How the College Works (Not Being offered in Academic Year 2020-2021

  Sponsored by the Office of the Dean of the Faculty, the “How the College Works” series is a bi-weekly program held each fall exclusively for tenured and senior athletics faculty. The goal of the series is to give faculty an in-depth opportunity to learn about and discuss aspects of the college that affect faculty, that are linked to committees on which faculty serve, and that bear on big decisions made at the college. The series covers topics such as the organization of the college, its financial workings, the work of the CAP, admissions and financial aid, and capital projects. Each workshop consists of presentation and discussion, and faculty participants receive a modest stipend. Calls for the series take place in late spring or early summer, and faculty are selected with an eye towards distribution across disciplines, rank, and gender. For more information, contact Sara Dubow Associate Dean of the Faculty. 

• Manuscript Review Program

  Open to Division I and II faculty by application, with preference to pre-tenure faculty. An opportunity for a faculty member with a completed manuscript draft or equivalent body of work to bring one or two experts from beyond Williams to campus to discuss their manuscript, along with a small group of Williams colleagues. For more information, contact Gage McWeeny, Director of the Oakley Center. 

• New Faculty Mentor Program

  For incoming tenure-eligible and tenured faculty. Each in-coming faculty member is provided with a faculty mentor, a senior colleague from outside of their academic unit, who will be happy to answer questions, provide information, and even offer suggestions. Senior faculty volunteer to serve as a mentor to incoming tenure-track faculty. For more information, contact Sara Dubow, Associate Dean of the Faculty.

• Open Classroom

  The Open Classroom initiative offers an easy way for all of us to visit other colleagues' classrooms over the course of the year.  It is managed through GLOW and will show up as one of your courses, not one you are teaching, but one you can "take."  For those who might be new to the College, about to teach in an unfamiliar classroom setting, looking to experiment with course content, or for those who are simply curious about the many different kinds of teaching that take place at Williams, The Open Classroom makes it possible for us to benefit from one another as a community of teachers. For more information, contact First3 Coordinators Nicole Mellow, Phoebe Cohen, or Amy Holzapfel.

• Publishing Day

  The Office of the Dean of the Faculty regularly hosts a Publishing Day for faculty in the spring. In previous years, panels have included a wide range of experts who will provide practical advice and discuss publishing for articles, scholarly texts, serious nonfiction, and op-eds in a range of fields. We have also had conversations about evolving publishing markets, including news ways in which scholarship is disseminated and used.

• Roundtables (Chairs)

  Available exclusively to chairs of academic departments and programs, chairs roundtables provide an opportunity to constitute a group of four to five faculty to discuss service demands, navigating the chairperson role, and inter/intra-unit dynamics. For more information, contact the Dean of the Faculty.

• Roundtables (Teaching)

  Open to all faculty teaching during the relevant semester by application. An opportunity to constitute a group of four faculty to meet to discuss pedagogy and to visit each others’ classes. For more information, contact John Gerry, Associate Dean of the Faculty.

• Roundtables (Writing/Creative Endeavors)

  Open to all faculty by application, with preference to pre-tenure faculty. An opportunity to constitute a small group of four faculty to initiate writing/creative endeavor support groups and to share your work with each other. For more information, contact John Gerry, Associate Dean of the Faculty.

• Pedagogy and Class Practice (Teaching Through Emotions)

  Teaching Through Emotions (TTE) is a series of one-on-one collaboration, workshops and support groups for faculty based on the idea that teaching is an emotional exercise, and that ignoring emotions in teaching can lead to misalignment, ineffectiveness, and burnout.  The program is supported by the Office of the Dean of the Faculty, and facilitated by a Betsy Burris, an independent consultant who has been working as a teacher, teacher educator, and teacher supervisor for almost 35 years. Workshops, groups, and support available for Early Career, Mid-Career, and Late-Career Faculty (contact Betsy for information).

• Pedagogy and Class Practice (Writing Programs)

  Open to all faculty, the Office of Writing Programs offers support to faculty for any aspect of teaching writing or teaching with writing. Whether you’re planning a new writing-intensive course, looking for new ways to integrate writing into your current courses, or trying to make sense of a particularly perplexing stack of student papers, getting a bit of expert insight can make all the difference.For more information, contact Stephanie Dunson, Director of Writing Programs.

• Support for Faculty Writers

  Open to all faculty: The writing process provides challenges for writers of every caliber. Because even accomplished writers benefit from support, the Director of Writing Programs, Stephanie Dunson, offers individual consultation for faculty working on articles, proposals, or manuscripts. All individual consultations are private and confidential. For more information or to schedule a consultation, contact Stephanie Dunson, Director of Writing Programs.

• TTE (Teaching Through Emotions)

  Teaching Through Emotions (TTE) is a series of one-on-one collaboration, workshops and support groups for faculty based on the idea that teaching is an emotional exercise, and that ignoring emotions in teaching can lead to misalignment, ineffectiveness, and burnout. The program is supported by the Office of the Dean of the Faculty, and facilitated by a Betsy Burris, an independent consultant.