Please join us for an official welcome by Maggie Debelius, Director of Faculty Initiatives at CNDLS, followed by a virtual keynote by Flower Darby, Associate Director of the Teaching for Learning Center, University of Missouri.
Let’s face it. Teaching these days is tough. We’re exhausted, burned out, and frustrated by the societal challenges we’re navigating today. Yet our work is important, meaningful, and worthwhile. We’re changing lives and helping dreams come true. Topics covered in this talk will include the number one finding from almost a century of research on human flourishing, a theoretical framework to help us promote well-being for everyone in class, and practical, evidence-based strategies for every class (online or in-person), every discipline, and every mode. Based on Flower’s new book, The Joyful Online Teacher: Finding Our Fizz in Asynchronous Classes, this session will help us see how to promote flourishing—our own and our students’—and rediscover the joy inherent in transformational teaching and learning.
Associate Director of the Teaching for Learning Center, PhD Candidate, University of Missouri
Flower Darby celebrates and promotes effective teaching in all modalities to advance learning outcomes for all students. She’s an Associate Director of the Teaching for Learning Center at the University of Missouri. Prior to that, she held roles such as Assistant Dean of Online... Read More →
Embodying Georgetown's mission of cura personalis, the Engelhard Project is an innovative approach to integrating student wellbeing into learning environments.
Thank you to the Engelhard Project for sponsoring Flower Darby's talk on Monday of TLISI!
Monday May 18, 2026 11:00am - 12:30pm EDT Zoom Virtual Session(Zoom links can be found under each session's description.)
Introduction by Eddie Maloney, Executive Director, CNDLS and Professor, English Department
Higher education’s response to artificial intelligence has been largely defensive—focused on detection and restriction. That response misses the point. AI is not the problem. It exposes problems we have long ignored: we identify learning gaps too late and intervene too little; students receive minimal, often delayed feedback; and too many graduate unable to build or critique a serious argument.
Used well, AI is not a threat to rigor—it is one of the best tools we have to restore it. The difference lies in how it is used. As a ghostwriter, AI replaces thinking. As a Socratic interlocutor—questioning assumptions, demanding precision, surfacing counterarguments, and exposing weak reasoning—it deepens thinking.
This talk presents 22 practical ways to use AI to strengthen student learning and closes with a clear institutional agenda: redesign teaching around what AI now makes possible—timely, detailed feedback, explicit instruction in argumentation, and assessments that require real-time judgment.
Professor of History & Author, University of Texas at Austin
Steven Mintz is a history professor at the University of Texas at Austin and the author or editor of 17 books, including The Learning-Centered University. A leading authority on families, the life course, and higher education’s past, politics, and future, he has also been a prominent... Read More →
Eddie Maloney is the Executive Director of The Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship (CNDLS), a Professor of the practice of narrative literature and theory in the Department of English, and the Founding Director of a new Masters Degree program in Learning and Design... Read More →
Inspired by the Jesuits and the University’s mission to promote a liberal arts education, Georgetown Humanities Initiative is at the center of our university’s scholarly and public engagement.
Thank you to the GU Humanities Initiative for co-sponsoring Steven Mintz' lunch talk on Tuesday of TLISI... Read More →
CNDLS is turning 25! Over lunch, we will share remarks, memories, and celebrate our achievements in teaching and learning since the inception of CNDLS.
Eddie Maloney is the Executive Director of The Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship (CNDLS), a Professor of the practice of narrative literature and theory in the Department of English, and the Founding Director of a new Masters Degree program in Learning and Design... Read More →
Introduction by Randy Bass, Vice President for Strategic Education Initiatives & Professor, English Department
What does it mean to teach "democracy" in the modern world of higher education? This plenary will encourage participants to reflect on the evolving relationship between educating students about democracy and adopting a democratic approach to education, addressing topics such as the rise of university civic centers, the role of authority in the classroom, and the meaning of democratic expertise.
Assistant Professor at Georgetown University in the Department of Government and the Founding Director, Georgetown Initiative on Artificial Intelligence and Democratic Citizenship, Georgetown University
Mark Fisher is an Assistant Professor at Georgetown University in the Department of Government and the Founding Director of the Georgetown Initiative on Artificial Intelligence and Democratic Citizenship (AIDC). His research focuses on the history and future of democratic thought... Read More →
Randy Bass is Vice President for Strategic Education Initiatives and Professor of English at Georgetown University, where he leads the Designing the Future(s) initiative and the Red House incubator for... Read More →
The Capitol Applied Learning Labs is a one-of-a-kind, customized semester that lets Hoyas into their future, now. CALL students live, learn, and work in Downtown DC, on GU’s Capitol Campus, integrating themselves into the city and community—all while cultivating new networks... Read More →
