5th Annual Commission on College Teaching's Oregon Tech Excellence in Teaching Conference
The Commission on College Teaching held our Fifth Annual Oregon Tech Excellence in Teaching Conference on Monday, September 16th, 2019. This half day conference kicked off the start of convocation with faculty and staff engaged in conversation and sharing their passion for teaching. This year 119 Faculty and Staff attended this half day event that included a poster session, Keynote speaker and eight concurrent sessions.
Participant Comments
The Feedback collected noted that 100% of participants said they found something useful or applicable to their teaching.
"I thought the poster sessions were great!"
"The conference provided me with time to engage with faculty and their project and research"
"I loved the variety of topics and the opportunity to catch up with other faculty about the work they have been doing"
"I learned a lot about our own faculty and campus projects"
"The CCT conference was great and inspired me to learn many approaches that I can use or apply to my courses"
"The Oregon Tech faculty members have done great and developed such amazing skills"
Questions? Contact
Ben has been teaching Literature and Humanities courses as part of Oregon Tech's Humanities and Social Sciences department since 2013. His courses cover a wide variety of subjects under the larger umbrella of "The Humanities," but recently his focus has been on the environmental humanities in particular: he currently offers courses in American Nature Writing and Climate Fiction Literature and Film (among all the others). He was promoted to full Professor in 2023 and went on a research sabbatical during the 2023-2024 academic year to begin work on a new book project, which combines personal nonfiction and academic argumentation to advocate for a more holistic conception of the natural world's place in our lives. These days, he is continuing work on the book in hopes of turning it into a formal proposal to publishers. He is also collaborating with the AIRE Center to introduce a humanistic perspective to what is already an interdisciplinary endeavor.
Outside of work, Ben spends as much time hiking and sleeping on the ground as possible. He also loves going on lots of hikes, walks, and road trips throughout the West with his wife and two heelers. When he's recovering from all of the outdoor activities, he loves reading fiction and non-fiction, playing pretentious, artsy video games, writing songs, playing the guitar, and listening to jam bands. Somewhere in there, he occasionally sleeps.
I have been a full-time faculty member at Oregon Tech in Klamath Falls, OR since the fall for 2014. I have about two decades of human resource experience including as the director of human resources at Colby-Sawyer College. Prior to that, I was the human resources officer for Philharmonic Center for the Arts, the human resource and risk manager at Drax Group, and a retirement and benefits specialist with Brown & Brown Benefits, all in Naples, Fla. I was also a corporate trainer and supervisor at Boston Financial Data Services in Quincy, Ma.