Joshua R. Eyler
Director
Adjunct Associate Professor of Humanities
Herring 129 | jeyler@rice.edu | 713.348.2732
After receiving his Ph.D. in Medieval Studies from the University of Connecticut in 2006, Josh moved to a position as Assistant Professor in the English department at Columbus State University in Georgia. Although he was approved for tenure at CSU, his love for teaching and his desire to work with instructors from many different disciplines led him to the field of faculty development and to George Mason University, where he served as an Associate Director of the Center for Teaching and Faculty Excellence from 2011-2013. In August of 2013, he came to Rice to take the position of Director of the CTE. He has published broadly on medieval literature, and his eclectic research interests include the biological basis of learning, Chaucer, and disability studies. His current projects include the book How Humans Learn: The Science and Stories behind Effective College Teaching, which is under contract with West Virginia University Press.
Elizabeth (Betsy) Barre
Associate Director
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Religion
Herring 129 | barre@rice.edu | 713.348.2301
After receiving her Ph.D. in Religious Ethics from Florida State University in 2009, Betsy began her career in a postdoctoral fellowship program designed to introduce recent graduates to the challenges and rewards of teaching undergraduates in the context of a residential liberal arts college. As part of this program, organized by the Associated Colleges of the Midwest and funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, she spent a year as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies at Lake Forest College. This experience ignited her passion for undergraduate education, turned her research trajectory toward scholarship on teaching and learning, and convinced her to continue working within the context of a small liberal arts college in her next position as Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Marymount Manhattan College. After making the move to Rice in 2012, she was able to pursue her interest in undergraduate pedagogy by working with students and faculty in Rice's newly developed Program in Writing and Communication. In this role, she taught a series of disciplinary-based first-year seminars and contributed to the PWC's faculty development programming for those teaching first-year writing courses.
Trained as a comparative ethicist, Betsy's research lies at the intersection of moral philosophy and the history of religion, with a specific focus on Muslim, Christian, and secular political ethics. Her disciplinary scholarship uses contemporary western political philosophy to engage Catholic and Muslim arguments about the nature of legal tolerance within the context of moral and religious pluralism. And her scholarship on teaching and learning has employed this work to raise related questions about the nature of tolerance within the context of a morally and religiously diverse classroom. Betsy will be active in all CTE work, but for the 2014-2015 academic year she will be leading programming for both new and newly-tenured faculty, as well as the CTE's collection of data on the reach and impact of its programming. In addition, she will continue to teach courses that contribute to the curricular offerings of Rice's Program in Writing and Communication, Department of Religion, and Boniuk Institute for Religious Tolerance.
Robin Paige
Associate Director
Adjunct Associate Professor of Sociology
Herring 129 | robin.paige@rice.edu | 713.348.3093
Robin Paige received her doctorate in Development Sociology from Cornell University in 2008. Her research focuses on gender, migration, and alternative food-systems in the US and Mexico. Her current research is a qualitative study of women who remain behind when their husbands migrate from Mexico to the US and the social and emotional consequences for women during long periods of family separation. She came to Rice University in 2012 as a Visiting Professor in the Department of Sociology where she taught courses on gender, globalization, and the sociology of food and the environment, as well as, the core course in the Community Bridges Program at the Kinder Institute for Urban Research. From 2013- 2017 Robin was the Head Resident Fellow at Lovett College where she played a central role in the social, cultural, and academic life of the college. Prior to coming to Rice Robin was a Professor of Sociology and Coordinator of the Service Learning Program of Gavilan College in northern California.
Robin brings to the Rice Center for Teaching Excellence an extensive background in service learning, faculty development, undergraduate education, and curriculum and program development across the disciplines. She has a diverse background in undergraduate education teaching at a wide variety of educational institutions from the community college to land grant and private universities. Robin is active in all programs, events, and services at Rice’s Center for Teaching Excellence, but she will be leading the Center’s undergraduate programs. In addition, Robin will continue to teach courses on globalization, food systems, and gender in the Department of Sociology.
Elaine Chang
Program Coordinator
Herring 129 | ElaineChang@rice.edu | 713.348.2929
Elaine Chang is the Program Coordinator for the Center for Teaching Excellence. Prior to coming to Rice, she served as the Executive Assistant to the Head of School at The Joy School. Before her role at The Joy School, she had an opportunity to live in northern California to work as an Assistant Site Supervisor at a child development center. Elaine received her B.S. in Human Development and Family Sciences from the University of Texas at Austin.