Matthew R. Deroo, Assistant Professor, Department of Teaching and Learning, School of Education and Human Development
Matthew R. Deroo applied to be an Engaged Faculty Fellow to further develop his knowledge about community-engaged scholarship. Building from earlier work in support of music and arts-based education in and out of school spaces, he will draw upon his partnership with the Lowe Art Museum to revise an existing course on content area literacies. Through the support of this fellowship, Dr. Deroo seeks to introduce a service-learning component to students’ field-based placements. Students enrolled in the content area literacies course will apply class learning from their engagement at the museum to public school classrooms. Students will design and enact lesson plans using materials and resources from the Lowe in support of Miami-Dade Public Schools students’ learning in either their local classroom or at the museum.
Carol Kaminsky, Dance Faculty Lecturer, Department of Music and Vocal Performance, Frost School of Music
Carol Kaminsky is passionate about dance and the therapeutic impact it has on diverse groups of people. As a board-certified dance/movement therapist, she has worked in clinical practice with children and adults with mental and physical challenges for over three decades while concurrently teaching dance/movement therapy at the undergraduate level. She has established a cognate in this field, The Creative Arts in Therapy: Integrating Music and Dance into Counseling and Healthcare. For one of the courses in the cognate, DAN 291 Dance Movement Therapy, students will learn the foundational principles and applications of dance/movement therapy through movement explorations and reflective practices. With the support of the Office of Civic and Community Engagement, Carol plans to build a partnership with a campus or community agency that explores how creativity, dance, and expressive movement can support mental health.
Esteban Petruzzello, Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Miami Herbert Business School
Esteban Petruzzello has had the opportunity to encounter a variety of service-learning approaches at the National Economics Teaching Association conference, the Conference on Teaching and Research in Economic Education, and University of Miami's Academic Technologies Faculty Showcases and the Active and Experiential Learning Seminar at the Business School. His Industrial Economics and Public Policy course includes a service-learning and civic engagement component that creates a mutually beneficial relationship for students and community partners. Students apply industrial economics tools to the managerial decisions of local non-profit institutions or small businesses, while community partners receive an analysis of the economic principles behind the decisions of the organization and potential suggestions to be considered. Students can also establish links with NGOs or local government agencies and analyze policy decisions. Dr. Petruzzello is interested in the demand for goods that can be harmful, and the connections with public policy that these types of goods have. His research focuses on the economics of addiction, obesity, and nutrition.
Brent Swanson, Lecturer, Department of Musicology, Frost School of Music
Brent Swanson’s focus on music related to the Rwandan genocide illuminates the various ways music and dance have facilitated reconciliation amongst Its citizens living in the country and in the diaspora. As President of the non-profit Mizero Children of Rwanda, Brent worked with Rwandan artist Jean-Paul Samputu to organize a group of Rwandan orphaned and vulnerable children to tour the US and Canada to raise awareness and funds for an Arts Academy. The group performed at the UN for Human Rights Day and the Montreal Millennium Summit with Angelique Kidjo in 2007. Brent’s scholarship on Samputu’s holistic and inclusive, yet distinctly Christian, approach to forgiveness and reconciliation through adopting the cultural expressions of the Twa (known as intwatwa) in Rwanda brings much needed attention to the marginalized group. Brent’s forthcoming book chapter, “Hope, Destruction, and Reconciliation: Samputu’s Healing Ngoma” in the book Music and Peacebuilding: African and Latin American Perspectives, (Lexington Press) focuses on how Samputu’s Christian recontextualization of music of marginalized groups in Rwanda promotes peace and reconciliation. As an Engaged Faculty Fellow, Dr. Swanson will be creating a course on Music and Peacebuilding that draws on his civic work and scholarship on Rwanda.
Diana Jordan Zamora, Lecturer, Department of Business Law, Miami Herbert Business School
As an Engaged Faculty Fellow, Diana Zamora will be teaching an experiential consumer law course. Students will be challenged to work with legal professionals and clients on real cases to learn how their substantive learning in the classroom can be applied to help those in their community. Students will work with attorneys from Dade Legal Aid to represent clients in business law matters, with students conducting legal research and helping prepare draft briefs and motions, demand letters, and settlement documents. After learning about consumer protection laws in this country, students will present seminars to non-profit community partners, such as Casa Valentina and Lotus House, to share how others can legally protect themselves before searching for housing, shopping for a car, or applying for a credit card and student loans.
Marina Magloire, Assistant Professor, Department of English, College of Arts and Sciences
Marina Magloire is an Assistant Professor in the English Department, specializing in black feminism and Afro-diasporic literature. As an Engaged Faculty Fellow, Magloire plans to partner with local arts organizations in Little Haiti and Little Havana to develop her ENG 210 course “Black Girl Magic: Black Feminism and African Diaspora Religions.” Through community-based activities ranging from learning sacred dances to making their own altars, students will engage directly with the dynamic practices of African Diaspora spirituality throughout the course. By pairing UM students with practitioners of African spiritual practice in Greater Miami, this course seeks to foster mutual understanding and erode the pernicious stereotypes about African Diaspora Religions that continue to have tangible effects on economically-vulnerable communities.
Rebecca Bulotsky Shearer, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, College of Arts and Sciences
Rebecca Bulotsky Shearer, Ph.D. applied to be an Engaged Faculty Fellow to create more opportunities for students in her Child and Adolescent Development course to be engaged with early childhood programs within the community. Dr. Shearer is a community-based researcher, trained as a clinical child, community, and school psychologist. Her research interests include the development of classroom assessments and interventions to support the social-emotional competence and school readiness of preschool children living in urban poverty, and those with disabilities. In her course, students engaged in service-learning experiences in local early care and education centers serving children birth to six, from diverse backgrounds. Students applied the content and skills they learned in class through interactions with children and the creation of evidence-based developmental activities within the center to support children’s language, cognitive, social/emotional, and physical development. Students completed reflection papers throughout the semester and a final semester-long portfolio that will be shared with the centers.
