The Office of Graduate Studies & The Graduate Center has announced that they will fund PhD candidate Lacy Murphy to complete a professional development residency this summer at the National Humanities Center in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. Through the residency, Lacy will learn about best practices for undergraduate teaching in the humanities classroom with a focus on effective instructional strategies that emphasize accessibility and inclusivity in curriculum planning, classroom teaching practice, and grading and assessments. Lacy has shown an interest in accessible pedagogy throughout her graduate career. In 2019, she proposed and completed a research fellowship for the Visual Resource Center (VRC) during which she interviewed faculty and staff in Disability Resources and the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL). At the culmination of her research, Lacy created a website that continues to serve as a resource for professors and teaching assistants called Accessible WashU. She also authored a blog post for the CTL that provided five actional steps that faculty members can take to render their classrooms more accessible. Lacy remained engaged with the issue of accessibility at WashU through her participation in several committees including the Standing Committee on Facilitating Inclusive Classrooms, the Graduate and Professional Student Advisory Council to the Center for Diversity and Inclusion, and the University Policy and Practice Affecting Students with Disabilities Committee. She is thrilled to participate in the residency and hopes to draw on previous research and advocacy experience to engage meaningfully with her peers across disciplines from other universities and to benefit from the guidance of authorities on accessible pedagogy as well.
