Beth Wright Fath Named a 2022-23 Provost’s Faculty Fellow
During her fellowship, Fath will work on the project, “Decolonizing and Degendering Courses and Curriculum.”
Beth Wright Fath, a teaching professor and head of the Department of Health and Exercise Studies, has been named a Provost’s Faculty Fellow for 2022-23.
The Provost’s Faculty Fellows Program supports talented faculty in the exploration of academic leadership roles at the university’s highest levels. Current NC State faculty interested in learning more about academic affairs administration can hone their skills as faculty leaders through working closely with Provost’s Office staff on projects that are meaningful to them and the university.
Fellows have the opportunity to shadow the provost in meetings or other activities that are relevant to their areas of interest or to their project area, and may participate in individual leadership coaching conversations with senior vice provosts or vice provosts. Fellowships typically last for one or two semesters.
During her fellowship, Fath will work on her project, “Decolonizing and Degendering Courses and Curriculum.” Fath discovered her interest in the topic when she and Autumn Mist Belk, dance minor coordinator and teaching professor in HES, were developing the dance minor program several years ago. Dance programs in the United States have historically focused on Western European concert dance, and they wanted to broaden course offerings at NC State to incorporate more styles from around the world.
“In the dance world, [representation] has become more important,” Fath said. “Since I’m in HES and we see every undergraduate student that comes through the university, I was thinking about how we could and should look at how this impacts all of our classes. In terms of cultural context and access and equity, I thought this would be a great place to reach the most people.”
Through the Provost’s Faculty Fellows Program, Fath plans to examine the topic beyond dance and other HES classes. Her goal is to find inter- and trans-disciplinary tools for faculty across the university to use as they develop their courses to ensure representation and diversity in all fields. One simple example is encouraging faculty to consider the photos and visual media they use in classes.
“There are pockets of these types of things with decolonization and degendering that are already happening across the university and across the world,” Fath said. “So what I’m trying to do, in short, is to make a survey of what’s already happening and see if there are commonalities or if there is a sort of toolkit that could be developed and shared across disciplines that might help people who are interested in starting to do this on their own work that could help them take those first steps.”
Learn more about the Provost’s Faculty Fellows Program here: https://provost.ncsu.edu/about/provosts-faculty-fellows-program/.
