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Home/Core Initiatives/Connections and Collaboration/ACS Virtual Workshops & Conversations

ACS Virtual Workshops & Conversations

ACS is delighted to present a series of engaging virtual workshops and book chats to conclude our 2025 Summer Collaboration Grants. Join us from August through October for three virtual workshops exploring timely topics that reflect shared interests across ACS. And if you didn’t get all your summer reading done, we’re hosting three lunchtime book chats with facilitators of summer reading groups! Each session offers a casual opportunity for all ACS members to drop in and hear reflections and key takeaways from the group’s selected book and its implications for our work.

Click below to expand each item and learn more about available sessions. To register, complete the form located at the bottom of the page.

Monday, August 4th: Developing Recruitment Strategies While Navigating the Anti-DEI Crusade
Developing Recruitment Strategies While Navigating the Anti-DEI Crusade
Workshop Facilitators: Nicole Fratto Garcia (Trinity) & Marlene Arellano (Davidson)
August 4th from 11:00am-12:00pm ET

Join us for an informative virtual workshop that offers strategies for how your institutions can preserve, strengthen, and advocate for your fly-in programs while highlighting less cost-prohibitive alternatives. Participants will leave with a toolkit of best practices, strategies, and insights that can be immediately implemented within their institutions to enhance their diversity and recruitment efforts through fly-in programs and other alternatives.
Wednesday, August 13th: Prompting Success with Generative AI in Teaching and Student Research
Prompting Success with Generative AI in Teaching and Student Research
Workshop Facilitators: Renée Jordan (Morehouse), Celeste N. Lee (Spelman), Natasha K. McClendon (Spelman), Ryan Cales (Richmond) & Andrew Bell (Richmond)
Wednesday, August 13th from 10:00am to 12:30pm ET

Join us for a dynamic, hands-on workshop designed to equip ACS faculty with the tools, strategies, and confidence to use generative AI to support student success. This 2.5-hour session blends two key approaches: using AI to enhance teaching through prompt engineering and integrating AI intentionally into the student research and writing process. Participants will explore how to personalize learning, support diverse student needs, and foster deeper critical thinking, as well as how to scaffold research assignments and build AI literacy.
Faculty will leave with practical tools, sample materials, and a clear framework for aligning AI use with course outcomes. This solutions-focused session emphasizes clarity, intention, and equity in AI-integrated learning.

Please come prepared with access to a generative AI platform (e.g., ChatGPT or Gemini). Note: This workshop is centered on student learning and empowerment—not on academic misconduct or detection tools.
Tuesday, August 19th: Could I Stay or Should I Go? Career Development and Belonging for International Students in the Current American Zeitgeist
Could I Stay or Should I Go? Career Development and Belonging for International Students in the Current American Zeitgeist
Book Chat Facilitator: Mohammed Forero Bucheli (Rollins College)
Tuesday, August 19th from 12:00pm-1:00pm ET

How can liberal arts colleges more effectively support international students’ career development in an era of shifting immigration policies and political uncertainty?
This book chat, inspired by The Good Immigrant (edited by Nikesh Shukla & Chimene Suleyman), brings together reflections from a summer ACS reading group that explored how advising structures can evolve to be more inclusive, human-centered, and justice-oriented. The anthology served as a catalyst for conversations about belonging, immigration, and the often-overlooked barriers international students face when navigating life after graduation.

Join us for a cross-campus conversation that will spotlight new ideas and concrete strategies for building more responsive, globally-minded advising practices. Participants will share emerging insights and a collective reflection document designed to spark ongoing dialogue and institutional action across ACS campuses.
Friday, September 12th: Pedagogy of Kindness by Cate Denial
Pedagogy of Kindness by Cate Denial
Book Chat Facilitator: Nisha Gupta (Centre College)
Friday, September 12th from 11:00am-12:00pm ET

Join us for a thoughtful conversation exploring Pedagogy of Kindness by Cate Denial—a timely and compassionate framework for reimagining our teaching in the face of rising plagiarism, student disengagement, mental health concerns, and the evolving landscape of inclusive education. Denial invites us to center kindness not as self-sacrifice, but as a belief in our students’ agency and humanity: “It is about believing my students.”

Members of the ACS summer reading group will reflect on their experience with the book, share practical takeaways, and offer recommendations for applying equitable, student-centered, and sustainable pedagogies. Whether you’ve read the book or are simply curious about its themes, all are welcome to this informal, lunchtime discussion designed to inspire connection, care, and renewal in our teaching practices.
Friday, September 19th: Understanding the Tumult in Contemporary Higher Education
Understanding the Tumult in Contemporary Higher Education
Book Chat Facilitators: R. Brit Katz (Southwestern) & Connie Carson (Furman)
Friday, September 19th from 2:00pm-3:00pm ET

Join us for a lunchtime book chat exploring Whatever It Is, I’m Against It: Resistance to Change in Higher Education by Brian Rosenberg. This engaging conversation will reflect on the book’s insights into overcoming institutional resistance and advancing meaningful change within colleges and universities.

Participants from the Summer 2025 reading group will share takeaways from the text, connect recommendations to their own leadership and management approaches, and exchange ideas for practical implementation across ACS campuses. This session is also an opportunity to consider how embracing change can reinvigorate our work and help ease the burnout so many in higher ed are navigating today.
Friday, October 24th: PLAI-ing with CLAAI: Critical (and Fun!) Innovation
PLAI-ing with CLAAI: Critical (and Fun!) Innovation
Workshop Facilitators: JT Torres (Washington & Lee) & Lauren Craig Tilton (Richmond)
Friday, October 24th from 9:30am-10:30am ET

Join us for an interactive virtual workshop that blends two powerful lenses on artificial intelligence in higher education. Through the PLAI approach, we’ll play with AI tools in low-stakes, creative ways that spark curiosity and reflection. At the same time, CLAAI offers a critical liberal arts perspective that invites us to interrogate AI’s social, ethical, and institutional impacts—asking what’s at stake for students, faculty, and the future of knowledge. Together, we’ll explore how to stay curious, skeptical, and empowered as educators in an AI-infused academic world. No prior experience with AI tools is required, just an openness to experimentation, uncertainty, and adaptation.

We look forward to your participation in these community-driven conversations and learning opportunities. Contact Shiree Williams (swilliams@acsouth.edu) with questions.

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