COE’s Bettencourt Selected for National Leadership Seminar

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Each year, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) funds a four-week summer workshop for faculty, doctoral students and researchers from across the country. Only 25 of 133 applicants were selected by NEH this year, and among them is Dr. Genia Bettencourt from the College of Education (COE) Department of Leadership (LEAD).

“Now more than ever, it is crucial for scholars and practitioners in higher education to be able to cut through the noise and find quality empirical information to guide their decisions,” Bettencourt said.

The institute's theme is titled “Unpacking the History of Higher Education in the U.S.” It’s designed to support faculty who teach courses on the history of higher education, which Bettencourt does in LEAD. Over the four weeks, she will learn new strategies to engage her students with new materials and research opportunities. The research conducted during the workshop spans over a vast array of topics, but Bettencourt is hoping this will allow her an opportunity to build on her work examining how social class and classism impacts higher education.

She elaborated, “Specifically, I’m interested in topics like student activism related to wealth inequality, like the Occupy Wall Street movement, and tuition increases as well as broader experience of student activists as a whole.”

The first week of the seminar begins Monday and will be held in person at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., while the remaining three weeks will be virtual. NEH is an independent federal agency and one of the largest humanity program funders in the country.