2024 News

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Dr. Gail D. Burd, senior vice provost of academic affairs and teaching and learning and university distinguished professor of molecular and cellular biology, will retire in January 2025 after 40 years of exceptional service at the University of Arizona.

Dr. Burd established faculty learning communities that helped faculty understand that effective education is accomplished through cognitive engagement, discourse, and collaborative interaction. She spearheaded the establishment of the Center for University Education Scholarship (CUES), which supports innovative teaching and research on learning methods. 

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CUES serves as a model for change and improvement in university education, by fostering exceptional scholarly experiences for faculty and staff — primarily through financial grants that fund fellowships, project-based challenges, and workshops.

The 2024 CUES Distinguished Fellows and Spanning Boundaries Challenge Grantees recognize SBS faculty from the Department of English and School of Anthropology for their work in integrating place-based learning in Southwest Studies curricula, developing linguistically responsive teaching assistant training models, and fostering teaching teams to support student belonging and self-efficacy. 

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“Any book or knowledge source remains relevant longer when it’s dynamic, or embracing of continuous change.”

These words appear in the introduction of the most recent edition of Humans R Social Media, a cutting edge, open access “living book” on new media penned by information scholar Diana Daly and several contributors, including her students.

Presenting a compelling vision for what’s possible with openly-licensed learning materials, Humans R Social Media has seen almost constant evolution since it was first published in 2017. Daly, then a newly appointed faculty member at the University of Arizona’s School of Information, set out to create a textbook that would address the dynamic needs of modern students exploring media studies.

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The Center for University Education Scholarship has announced its 2024 Distinguished Fellows and Spanning Boundaries awardee teams.

CUES Distinguished Fellowships support independent faculty research, while the Spanning Boundaries program encourages cross-disciplinary collaborations based on a theme. Awarded projects for both programs must contribute to educational scholarship and address innovation or grand challenges in university education.

Distinguished Fellows receive up to $20,000 annually for up to three years. Both 2024 Distinguished Fellowship projects are being funded for three years. Each Spanning Boundaries team receives up to $100,000 over two years.

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A five-year grant for $1.7 million from the Department of Education began funding the new West Region Native American Language Resource Center in the fall. 

Aresta Tsosie-Paddock, assistant professor of American Indian studies and linguistics, is co-principal investigator for the center. As part of the university’s Center for University Education Scholarship fellowship program, Tsosie-Paddock has created a mentor-apprentice language project that pairs U of A students taking a beginner's course in Navajo with fluent Navajo speakers through Zoom in hopes of increasing Navajo language proficiency and cultural knowledge. Under the new center, the basic idea of Tsosie-Paddock's CUES project will be expanded to other Native languages.

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“Social media and humans exist in a world of mutual influence, and humans play central roles in how this influence is mediated and transferred,” says Diana Daly, a University of Arizona School of Information associate professor of practice.

The newest edition of Daly’s acclaimed, open-access textbook on social media, new media and participatory culture, Humans R Social Media (HSRM), explores that coexistence in a unique way: by welcoming additional authors and featuring contributions by students to help readers understand how we as humans shape social media, and how social media in turn shapes our world.

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Using simulation and augmented and extended reality, the center designed strictly for nursing students builds confidence as graduates enter the workforce.

Janine Hinton, Ph.D., an associate clinical professor and director of the [UArizona] Steele Innovative Learning Center as well as a member of BIO5, is in charge of simulation-based education for the College [of Nursing] in both Gilbert and Tucson. 

Hinton's development of mixed reality training for nursing students was made possible in part through funding from UArizona's Center for University Education Scholarship.

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The College of Social and Behavioral Sciences has been a university leader in contributing scholarship to the advancement of educational innovation and exploration in teaching and learning through the Center for University Education Scholarship, or CUES, at the University of Arizona. 

SBS faculty CUES Distinguished Fellows and Spanning Boundaries Challenge Grantees are recognized for finding innovative solutions through groundbreaking work across seven academic units.