Biography
Katharine B. Free is a Professor of Theatre Arts at Loyola Marymount University. She completed her Ph.D. at the University of California at Los Angeles. She teaches theatre history and dramatic literature as well as directs. She has published articles on the Greek theatre and translation in academic journals and has delivered papers at international scholarly conferences, most recently Comparative Drama Conference where where her translations and adaptations of Menander’s Epitrepontes and Perikeiromene have received staged readings. She has also lectured frequently for Los Angeles Opera on many topics related to their season. Her adaptation of Menander’s The Arbitration (Epitrepontes) is performed as part of the 2012-2013 LMU Theatre Arts Season.

Philosophy
Teaching is an adventure into the unknown. This is true not only in terms of the material of the class but also in terms of ourselves (the teacher and the students in tandem) as we interact and grow in unexpected ways. Teaching is an act of mutual learning. In every class, there is the potential to acquire not only skills and information, but wisdom that can take one on life’s journey with confidence e and serenity.

Experience
I teach the history of the theatre and dramatic literature as a microcosm of society and a nexus of thought, art, and justice. The texts I teach with contain great truths and insights into psychology, social unrest, group and individual struggle, and common human aspirations. The anxieties and dreams of every culture and age are in the art of those who made it. I hope to infuse curiosity and enthusiasm in the students for the expressiveness of all art and of theatre in particular. For students, this means looking at text as source of profound philosophical and social meaning, for the theatre majors this also means seeing the potential for a creative interpretation of the text and acquiring an awareness of theatrical resources of cultures different from their own. I root my teaching in writing. One of my most important goals is for the students to leave my class with a greater ability to communicate their ideas cogently and persuasively.

Biography
Elissa has degrees from Harvard University (AB), London School of Economics (MSc), and UCLA Anderson (MBA, PhD). Prior to joining the faculty at LMU, Elissa taught at Baruch College’s Zicklin School of Business and the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business. When not busy conducting research, writing papers, or teaching, she directs LA’s annual crossword puzzle championship.

Philosophy
I love the inherent creative potential of a classroom. I love the challenge of identifying engaging ways to impart important information or start a fast-paced dialogue. Even better, I love when my classrooms erupt in debate. I love trying to get people to think deeply and to think in different ways. The bottom line: I love to learn. I want my students to find joy in learning as well.

Experience
As an instructor of business, one of my central and ongoing challenges lies in effectively bridging current theory and current practice. I believe that the best way in which to build this bridge is through the encouragement of an interactive classroom environment focused on consideration of real-world cases and experiences. I believe strongly in the case method for business education and thus dedicate many class sessions to active discussion of specific (and real) managerial dilemmas or decisions. I also believe that applied experiences and subsequent reflection are essential to engage learners; I thus design and/or implement hands-on “lab”-like scenarios (including living cases, small scale business launches, and active fieldwork to support business concept evolution and validation). I work to integrate new technologies into my class, to keep the course environment aligned with external reality and to maximize the alignment of student learning techniques with outside-of-class student technology use.

Biography
Jeremy McCallum worked as a research scientist at Unilever Research before earning his PhD from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UCLA. He joined the faculty of LMU in 2005 and currently teaches in the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department. He mentors undergraduate students in organic chemistry research.

Philosophy
My role as a teacher is to inspire and foster a love of learning while providing an environment that is conducive to learning. This is accomplished by communicating effectively, engaging and connecting with students, and utilizing an array of innovative technologies and other resources to provide an interactive, interesting, and meaningful classroom setting.

Experience
Dr. McCallum’s pedagogical experiences have focused on the environment of learning. Teaching with enthusiasm and encouragement provides his students with a foundation for learning. Group work, analogies, and connections to real world experiences facilitate student understanding and retention. Dr. McCallum believes the integration of teaching and scholarship provides students with a complete and modern education. He integrates his research projects into classroom lectures and uses his laboratory research projects for hands-on learning and practical experiences. He utilizes a wide variety of technology in the classroom including clickers, online homework and quizzes, and has experience with flipping classroom learning. Dr. McCallum and colleagues in the Physics and Math Departments were recently awarded an NSF grant for the PENS project, focusing on using technology to measure and improve problem-solving skills across disciplines.

Biography
Brian Treanor received his Ph.D. from Boston College. His teaching and research cover hermeneutics, environmental philosophy, philosophy of religion, and ethics. He is the author or editor of Aspects of Alterity (Fordham, 2006), A Passion for the Possible (Fordham, 2010), Interpreting Nature (Fordham, expected 2012), and Emplotting Virtue (SUNY, expected 2012).

Philosophy
Goethe once observed, “treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them to become what they are capable of being.” I believe that great professors help their students to become their best selves, and that doing so requires a careful balance of challenge, encouragement, mentoring, and modeling.

Experience
My classes tend to be focused on the close reading of primary texts and lively discussions of the ideas therein. I require my students to read both charitably and critically—the former so that they make a genuine attempt to see what a given philosopher thinks in the best possible light, and the latter so that they consider whether or not it is true or good. In my classes, philosophy is never simply about mastering what a given thinker said—although a careful understanding of the position in question is a prerequisite for anything further—but also about considering how various philosophical insights are relevant in the contemporary lives of my students.