# Faculty Lunches The Bok Center hosts an annual series of faculty lunch conversations on aspects of teaching and learning. Each lunch is moderated by one or more faculty colleagues, who share their experiences in the classroom and lead a broad discussion of the lessons learned and opportunities for adaptation. The Bok Center follows up with attendees to forward resources that may be of interest in light of the presentation. ![faculty lunch montage](/sites/g/files/omnuum6756/files/styles/hwp_1_1__960x960_scale/public/2024-11/Prog%20-%20fac%20-%20faculty%20lunch%20montage.png?itok=K4gFTIzb) ## Upcoming Conversations No upcoming faculty lunches ## Past Faculty Lunches on Learning [### Faculty Lunch: Holding Seated Final Exams ](/event/faculty-lunch-holding-seated-final-exams?occ_id=0)April 17, 2026 | 12:00PM - 1:15PM EDT | Kresge Foundation Room, Barker Center 114 In Person Are you switching to a seated final exam this spring or thinking about doing so in the fall? Are you unsure about the pedagogical value of seated final exams, but concerned about potential use of AI for take-home assessments? Join Professor Andrew Gordon... [### Faculty Lunch: Training TFs for Successful Sections ](/event/faculty-lunch-training-tfs-successful-sections?occ_id=0)February 27, 2026 | 12:00PM - 1:15PM EST | Plimpton Room, Barker Center 133 In Person Join Fiery Cushman (Psychology) and faculty colleagues over lunch to discuss how the section experience can be an invaluable pedagogical commodity. Done right, section forces students to use what they’ve learned, build skills of expression and listening... [### Norm-Setting for Rich Classroom Conversations, Gina Schouten (Philosophy), Civil Discourse and Teaching Faculty Lunch ](/event/norm-setting-rich-classroom-conversations-gina-schouten-philosophy-civil-discourse-and?occ_id=0)January 21, 2026 | 12:00PM - 1:00PM EST | Plimpton Room (Barker 133) In Person Come join Gina Schouten (Philosophy) and faculty colleagues on Wednesday, January 21, 12:00-1:00pm (Plimpton Room, Barker Center 133) for a pre-semester conversation on Norm-Setting for Rich Classroom Conversations. In this session, we'll discuss... [### Competing Viewpoints, Contested Facts - Civil Discourse and Teaching Faculty Lunch ](/event/competing-viewpoints-contested-facts-civil-discourse-and-teaching-faculty-lunch?occ_id=0)November 20, 2025 | 12:00PM - 1:00PM EST | Plimpton Room, Barker Center 133 In Person Come join Dan Carpenter (Government), Ned Hall (Philosophy), and faculty colleagues over lunch to discuss a teaching challenge that strikes at the core of the academic enterprise: how do we teach when our students suspect our views on course material... [### POSTPONED | David Unger, "Organizing a Project-Based Class" ](/unger-faculty-lunch?occ_id=0)April 19, 2022 | 1:00PM - 2:00PM EDT | TBA In Person EVENT POSTPONED; PLEASE CHECK BACK FOR A FUTURE DATE IN THE 2022–2023 ACADEMIC YEAR Project-based classes can deeply engage students in authentic learning, but they can also be complicated to organize and manage. Open-ended student-led projects allow... [### POSTPONED | Rosie Bsheer, Title TBA ](/event/rosie-bsheer-title-tba?occ_id=0)March 29, 2022 | 12:00PM - 1:00PM EDT | TBA In Person EVENT POSTPONED; PLEASE CHECK BACK FOR A FUTURE DATE IN THE 2022–2023 ACADEMIC YEAR [### POSTPONED | Robin Hopkins, "How can Scientists be Scientists in the Classroom? An Experiment with an Undergraduate Research Experience Course" ](/hopkins-faculty-lunch?occ_id=0)March 1, 2022 | 1:00PM - 2:00PM EST | TBA In Person EVENT POSTPONED; PLEASE CHECK BACK FOR A FUTURE DATE IN THE 2022–2023 ACADEMIC YEAR Science is an active, hands-on discipline that involves problem solving, technical skill development, and data interpretation. Teaching science, however, is all-too-often... [### Louis Menand, "Oh, the Humanities!" ](/menand-faculty-lunch?occ_id=0)February 1, 2022 | 1:00PM - 2:00PM EST | Online; please register for Zoom link Virtual If there is one thing about which virtually all humanities professors, university administrators, and state legislators seem to agree these days, it's that the humanities are in a state of crisis, their enrollments in precipitous decline and their... [### Faculty Lunch: Doing Right by our Students in the Era of Accountability ](/event/faculty-lunch-christina-ciocca-eller?occ_id=0)March 3, 2020 | 12:00PM - 1:00PM EST | 50 Church St. 3rd Floor In Person Christina Ciocca Eller, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Social Studies With the rise of accountability in higher education, colleges and universities are sharing more data than ever before concerning their "performance"—especially in regards to their... [### Faculty Lunch: What I Learned from Teaching 'Introduction to Graduate School' (GSAS 299): Notes on an Experiment ](/event/faculty-lunch-robin-bernstein?occ_id=0)February 4, 2020 | 12:00PM - 1:00PM EST | 50 Church St. 3rd Floor In Person Robin Bernstein, Dillon Professor of American History; Professor of African and African American Studies and of Studies of Women, Gender, & Sexuality In the fall of 2019, Robin Bernstein launched an experimental course titled "Introduction to Graduate... [### Faculty Lunch: Are Students’ Perceptions of Teaching and Learning always Valid? The Role of (Dis)fluency in Passive and Active Learning ](/event/faculty-lunch-mccarty-deslauriers?occ_id=0)November 18, 2019 | 12:00PM - 1:00PM EST | Science Center Room 418D In Person Logan McCarty, Director of Physical Sciences Education and Lecturer on Physics, Chemistry and Chemical Biology Louis Deslauriers, Director of Science Teaching and Learning in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Senior Preceptor on Physics Despite... [### Faculty Lunch: Supporting Student-Directed Learning ](/event/faculty-lunch-karen-brennan?occ_id=0)October 22, 2019 | 12:00PM - 1:00PM EDT | 50 Church St. 3rd Floor In Person Karen Brennan, Associate Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education Creating opportunities for students to have choice in and control over their learning is an essential component of designing powerful and meaningful learning experiences... [### Faculty Lunch: The Writing Instructor's Dilemma ](/event/faculty-lunch-michael-pollan?occ_id=0)September 24, 2019 | 12:00PM - 1:00PM EDT | 50 Church St. 3rd Floor In Person Michael Pollan, Lewis K. Chan Arts Lecturer and Professor of the Practice of Non-Fiction Teaching students to write well is one of the most fundamental goals of a university education—and yet it has proven to be one of the most challenging and, for many... [### Faculty Lunch: Curating in the Context of Art Museums ](/faculty-lunch-learning-lee?occ_id=0)April 15, 2019 | 12:00PM - 1:00PM EDT | 50 Church St. Room 308 In Person Soyoung Lee, Landon and Lavinia Clay Chief Curator, Harvard Art Museums The terms "curation" and "curating" have become ubiquitous expressions nearly divorced from the art world. It seems one can "curate" one's dinner table, one's daily outfit, one's... [### Faculty Lunch: How can you develop your own effective style for visual aids in teaching? ](/faculty-lunch-learning-gaudet?occ_id=0)April 1, 2019 | 12:00PM - 1:00PM EDT | 50 Church St. Room 308 In Person Rachelle Gaudet, Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology Teaching is, among many other things, fundamentally an act of communication. To teach effectively, an instructor must be able to anticipate her students’ prior knowledge, and figure out how to... [### Faculty Lunch: Embodied Learning: Introducing Vocal and Physical Exercises into Your Teaching ](/faculty-lunch-learning-bailey?occ_id=0)March 5, 2019 | 12:00PM - 1:00PM EST | 50 Church St. Room 308 In Person Erika Bailey, Head of Voice and Speech at American Repertory Theater and Lecturer on Theater, Dance & Media When Erika Bailey works with acting students, one of her primary goals is to teach them how to ‘embody’ their role and the language they speak. An... [### Faculty Lunch: Rethinking the "Intro Course": How We Got Non-Concentrators to Dig Archaeology ](/event/faculty-lunch-learning-flad-liebmann?occ_id=0)February 12, 2019 | 12:00PM - 1:00PM EST | 50 Church St. Room 308 In Person Rowan Flad, John E. Hudson Professor of Archaeology and Director of Undergraduate Studies, Anthropology Department Matthew Liebmann, Professor of Anthropology and Archaeology Program Director Rowan Flad, Matt Liebmann, and their colleagues in Anthropology... [### Faculty Lunch: Criticism and Theory for the Faint of Heart ](/event/faculty-lunch-learning-robert-reid-pharr?occ_id=0)November 20, 2018 | 12:00PM - 1:00PM EST | 50 Church St. Room 308 In Person Robert Reid-Pharr, Professor of Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Robert Reid-Pharr will lead a discussion of how to get past the phobias that many students and instructors have about the acquisition of complex theoretical and critical ideas... [### Faculty Lunch: How can we motivate young scientists to grapple with important, but unanswerable ethical questions? ](/event/faculty-lunch-learning-steven-hyman?occ_id=0)October 23, 2018 | 12:00PM - 1:00PM EDT | 50 Church St. Room 308 In Person Steven Hyman, Distinguished Service Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Director of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, and Former Provost of Harvard University Several years ago, Steve Hyman embarked upon a pedagogical experiment... [### Faculty Lunch: How to Overhaul your Curriculum and Live to Tell the Tale ](/event/faculty-lunch-learning-suzannah-clark?occ_id=0)October 1, 2018 | 12:00PM - 1:00PM EDT | 50 Church St. Room 308 In Person Suzannah Clark, Morton B. Knafel Professor of Music and Chair, Department of Music As a veteran of successful curricular reforms at both Oxford and Harvard, Suzannah Clark has developed a keen sense for how to build consensus and align an undergraduate... [### Faculty Lunch: Minding Making ](/event/faculty-lunch-learning-5?occ_id=0)April 23, 2018 | 12:00PM - 1:00PM EDT | 50 Church St, Room 308 In Person Jennifer Roberts, Elizabeth Cary Agassiz Professor of the Humanities in the Department of History of Art and Architecture If the artisanal and technical skills behind artmaking are forms of knowledge, how can (or should) that knowledge be integrated into... [### Faculty Lunch: Virtual Earth or field trip to Mars: Integrating visualization technology into science teaching ](/event/faculty-lunch-learning-4?occ_id=0)April 13, 2018 | 12:00PM - 1:00PM EDT | McKinstry Room, Geological Museum 204, 24 Oxford St, Cambridge In Person John Shaw, Harry C. Dudley Professor of Structural and Economic Geology, Harvard College Professor, and Chair of the Department of Earth and Planetary Science Immersive visualization experiences are transforming the landscape of science education... [### Faculty Lunch: On Power and Ambiguity in the Student-Adviser Relation ](/event/faculty-lunch-learning-3?occ_id=0)March 20, 2018 | 12:00PM - 1:00PM EDT | 50 Church St, Room 308 In Person Mario Small, Grafstein Family Professor of Sociology Professor Mario Small will share insights from his recent book, Someone To Talk To, which examines—based in large part on the experiences of graduate students in their first, often difficult year in... [### Faculty Lunch: Virtual reality: Fostering cultural understanding, empathy, and critical engagement in the language classroom ](/event/faculty-lunch-learning?occ_id=0)December 6, 2017 | 12:00PM - 1:00PM EST | Science Center 318 In Person Nicole Mills, Senior Preceptor in Romance Languages and Literatures and Coordinator of the French Language Program The integration of emerging technologies into foreign language learning and teaching can engage, motivate, empower, and optimize the... [### Faculty Lunch: The Research Paper and its Discontents ](/event/faculty-lunch-jane-kamensky?occ_id=0)November 15, 2017 | 12:00PM - 1:00PM EST | Science Center 318 In Person Jane Kamensky, Professor of History and Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation Director of the Schlesinger Library Is it time to retire the research paper? Professor Jane Kamensky will lead a discussion of the strengths and shortcomings of the undergraduate... [### Faculty Lunch: Recreating the Culture of Science in the Classroom ](/event/faculty-lunch-learning-0?occ_id=0)October 11, 2017 | 12:00PM - 1:00PM EDT | Science Center, Room 418D In Person John Johnson, Professor of Astronomy and Director of Graduate Studies How can you design a science course in which all students feel like they belong and that they have the capacity to succeed? How can you integrate a strong sense of ethics and... [### Faculty Lunch on Learning: Margo Seltzer ](/event/faculty-lunch-learning-1?occ_id=0)Apr 28, 2017 | 12:00PM EDT In Person Flipping at Scale Margo Seltzer, Herchel Smith Professor of Computer Science, John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applies Sciences How can you design a science course in which all students feel like they belong and that they have the capacity to... [### Faculty Lunch on Learning: Ruth Lingford ](/event/faculty-lunch-learning-2?occ_id=0)March 23, 2017 | 12:00PM - 1:00PM EDT | Science Center, Room 318 In Person Ruth Lingford, Senior Lecturer on Visual and Environmental Studies Professor Lingford will discuss her experiences using hands-on animation techniques to help students think about science.