New horizons for the Bok Center

As Karen Thornber contemplates the forthcoming phase for the Bok Center, her core principles revolve around connection, collaboration, and innovation.

Since July, when Hopi Hoekstra, the Edgerley Family Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, designated Thornber as the Richard L. Menschel Faculty Director of the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, the Harry Tuchman Levin Professor in Literature and Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations has been focused on broadening the reach and intensifying the influence of the center, which has supported the Faculty of Arts and Sciences community for half a century.

For Thornber, who co-chairs the FAS Civil Discourse Advisory Group and is a member of the Generative AI Faculty Advisory Committee, nurturing productive dialogues on challenging subjects in the classroom and rethinking education in the era of AI are also major objectives.

“My aspiration is for the Bok Center to evolve into a leading and integrated hub for innovative teaching and learning,” Thornber expressed. “We harbor significant goals and aspirations, and I believe we are undoubtedly on the path to achieving this mission.”

In this edited dialogue with the Gazette, she elaborates on her aspirations for the center’s future.

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You’ve held this position for six months. What previous efforts are you building on, and what are your chief objectives for the future?

Historically, the Bok Center excelled at collaborating with faculty who were already outstanding and who aimed to elevate their teaching further, crafting exceptional and tailored courses. The center was equally adept at assisting faculty and teaching fellows who faced challenges in the classroom, helping them achieve greater success. My mission and objective are to engage all participants in the FAS teaching and learning ecosystem, ranging from undergraduate course assistants and graduate teaching fellows to junior faculty, tenure-track, and tenured professors, while continually rethinking and modifying courses, pedagogical practices, and broader professional development.

I am privileged to have a dynamic, innovative team enthusiastic about contributing to Bok’s vibrant future. In the upcoming months, we’ll recruit remarkable individuals who can help position the center more centrally within the FAS and the University. We are firmly committed to collaboration, and we’ve been diligently partnering with FAS leadership, the Office of Undergraduate Education, the Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Office for Faculty Affairs, and various other units across the FAS.

“We harbor significant goals and aspirations, and I believe we are undoubtedly on the path to achieving this mission.”

How do you plan to enhance the service Bok provides to faculty?

One aspect I am particularly enthusiastic about is establishing a faculty advisory committee to help me stay attuned to faculty concerns and assist in prioritizing initiatives for the Bok Center. I want to make the Bok Center more reachable for a wider range of faculty, and a fundamental approach to achieving this is by developing a website that serves as a primary resource for succinct guidance on all facets of teaching, from course design to navigating difficult discussions, as well as instructing in the AI era. We are also organizing various speaker series, including one where faculty will share strategies and best practices among themselves. Furthermore, I think the Bok Center can enhance its contributions during new faculty orientation, introducing newcomers to Harvard’s teaching resources and pedagogical innovations. Last fall, I visited numerous peer teaching and learning centers to gain insights into what energizes individuals in this domain. From those visits, I garnered many motivating ideas, ranging from new programming to strategies for better engaging faculty.

How do you intend to involve graduate students and teaching fellows?

We are collaborating with the Safra Center, the OUE, GenEd, and GSAS to create new training programs for our teaching fellows — we initiated the pilot program in January. Any first-time instructor requires some form of training, and it is now mandatory for GenEd teaching fellows — a significant milestone in the TF training landscape. My ambition is to extend this program to all teaching fellows in forthcoming semesters. We are also teaming up with the OUE and GSAS to reorganize the Pedagogy Fellows Program so departments will receive the necessary support in conducting pedagogy seminars and mentoring teaching fellows. Additionally, we are reviewing our Bok Teaching Certificates, which are quite popular among Harvard’s graduate students but could benefit from becoming more rigorous and harmonized with departments and GSAS. This spring, we are hosting several new Bok Seminars, including “Community and Civic Engagement in the Classroom,” featuring the Mindich Program in Engaged Scholarship. Another seminar, “Beyond the Classroom: Practical Tools for Teaching,” will focus on practical aspects of teaching — it aims to be much less theoretical than in the past, in light of the current demands of our environment.

How can undergraduates participate in the Bok Center?

Undergraduates have long been engaged as Learning Lab Undergraduate Fellows (LUFFs), who provide fresh and insightful perspectives on media production, instructional design, and

Our investigation continues. Additionally, we have Culture and Communication Consultants assisting in various Bok courses, providing constructive criticism on pedagogy and language proficiency to our global scholars. Moreover, we have Undergraduate Pedagogy Fellows, engaged in initiatives aimed at equity and inclusiveness within the academic environment. We are re-evaluating many of these initiatives, but one idea I encountered during my visits to Dartmouth and Barnard is the concept of course partners. These are undergraduate students who observe a faculty member’s course and offer genuine feedback and suggestions on ways to further involve undergraduates or enhance the material’s appeal and accessibility. This is merely one concept, yet I am enthusiastic about investigating this and other innovative methods to involve our undergraduates.

What initiatives is the center undertaking to promote civil discourse on campus?

Promoting civil discourse is fundamental to effective teaching and classroom participation. It is evident to us that cultivating the capacity to engage and navigate challenging discussions is a vital aspect of educator preparation. In January, we collaborated with the Safra Center, OUE, and GSAS to provide TF training that emphasized techniques to nurture civil discourse. In February, we welcomed Matthew Sohm as the Bok Center’s inaugural assistant director of civil discourse and classroom culture. Matthew is partnering with faculty and TFs to foster an inclusive classroom atmosphere where students can respectfully and collaboratively engage with diverse and fresh perspectives. His efforts tackle a culture of self-censorship, silence, and hasty consensus which many students identify as hindrances to their academic journey in the liberal arts and sciences at Harvard. Additional Bok staff, including Chloe Chapin, Sarah Emory, and Jonah Johnson, have also been incorporating civil discourse methodologies into their respective fields of expertise.

“It is evident to us that cultivating the capacity to engage and navigate challenging discussions is a vital aspect of educator preparation.”

This spring, we plan to partner with the Safra Center to host a series of discussions focused on civil discourse. Our intention is to develop a comprehensive civil discourse webpage as a resource for faculty members. A long-term initiative involves collaborating with Education Support Services regarding classroom design and infrastructure. Flexibility in classroom settings is essential, whether related to audiovisual resources or the arrangement of desks and chairs. Conducting meaningful discussions in a large lecture hall can be challenging due to chair configurations. Feelings of isolation and detachment adversely affect students’ learning capabilities. Classrooms must be environments where students feel connected to each other and to the content they are studying. Training for instructors will prioritize this objective.

How is the center transforming teaching and learning in light of AI’s growing influence in education?

The Bok Learning Lab is dedicated to leveraging AI to create innovative tools that customize and enrich educational experiences while also promoting a critical understanding of AI’s broader ramifications. Our workshops and collaborations with faculty do not merely respond to technological advancements; they are designed to foresee and shape the future, preparing our educators and students to flourish in an AI-enhanced academic landscape. We recognize that some faculty seek to expand their knowledge but are uncertain where to begin. My goal is to enable a wider range of faculty to instruct effectively in the era of AI. For some faculty, this will include working alongside the Bok Center to strategize on utilizing AI to enhance the educational experience. For others, it may involve collaborating with the center to encourage their students to critically evaluate the ethics surrounding AI or to emphasize the importance of in-person, experiential learning that can only be achieved in traditional classrooms on a residential campus like Harvard’s. Ultimately, faculty members establish the educational goals that count in their classrooms, and the Bok Center is prepared to assist them in achieving their desired outcomes.