GONZAGA FACULTY AND STAFF NEWSLETTER
OCTOBER 2021 VOL. 23 | #2
› Digital Tickets
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› Building Bridges
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› Sharing Native Voices
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KATHLEEN JEFFS: Getting to the Core of What We Do Here Having a D.Phil. from Oxford after her name (like President Thayne McCulloh) is not her claim to fame, although it could be a great conversation starter. For Kathleen Jeffs, taking over as director of Gonzaga’s Core Curriculum certainly has the potential to be the highlight of her still young career. Spirit sat down with the affable, enthusiastic new director for a Q&A.
When did you arrive at GU? I came back in 2012 to lead theater and dance, and it was a homecoming for me because I’m from Spokane, went to high school at Gonzaga Prep (Go Pups!).
What happened between high school graduation and your return to Spokane?
uses the metaphor of the world as a stage in studying what it means to perform in everyday life.
How do you approach your new job, just coming in? I’m taking time to learn more from Molly Kretchmar-Hendricks, my guru and predecessor, before I make any decisions about the Core. In the beginning, I’m just trying to be a good ambassador for the Core with faculty and students. I definitely have a vision for strengthening the Core, focusing on a renewed understanding of what the Core means to students.
How do we assess the impact of the Core?
One way is by inviting the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities to visit and tell I did my undergrad at the University us what they see. We have five of San Francisco, majoring in programmatic outcomes that Kathleen Jeffs’ new job as Core director is quite daunting, but her English and Spanish with a minor in we look at, including student enthusiasm is unbridled. philosophy. Then I spent nearly 10 participation in service, cultural and years doing grad work at Oxford in co-curricular activities. Another England, including a master’s and powerful way is to directly assess of the university. The Core is a beautiful a doctorate, and a four-year postdoctoral expression of what a Gonzaga education is. It’s student work and gather their perspectives. research fellowship, teaching at Oxford, The impact is expressed by our graduates in an exciting next step. I am now working with Cambridge and Sussex, researching and how they live their lives. many people from multiple disciplines, from presenting through a grant by the Arts and nursing and human physiology to engineering What makes you nervous about this new Humanities Research Council. and the arts and sciences. I have a broader job? outlook than ever before. Tell us about your Gonzaga experience. Quick answer . . . It is so big. It impacts every What has been your experience with the When I arrived in 2012, Communication Arts part of our campus and community. You really Core as a professor? was going through restructuring following need to prioritize it, because the possibilities program review. In 2013, Theatre and Dance are so large. But at first, I’m focusing on the I taught in the fine arts requirement every became its own department, and I was fundamentals. semester I’ve been here. I taught Playwriting appointed chair. Since that time we have hired under the writing-enriched requirement. I How much will you be able to teach, if at incredible faculty and staff and built the statedeveloped a Core Integrated Seminar, Arts all, with these new responsibilities? of-the-art Myrtle Woldson Performing Arts in the Community, the brainchild of Shalon Center. It’s a great time to be at Gonzaga. Our Parker in Fine Arts. By this time the seniors I can teach one class per semester. I’m students are the best! have taken the gamut of Core requirements. teaching the World as a Stage class this spring Our CIS students interviewed former Peace with a Living/Learning Community in Coughlin What inspired you to seek this new Corps volunteers from our community and Hall. We’ll have class in their seminar room, position? wrote a play based upon their experiences. making it a community affair. The Core is the heart of what we do at This spring I’m teaching a First Year Seminar, Gonzaga. After nine years in theater and World as a Stage, taking a global studies class dance, I wanted to be closer to the center that looks at different times and cultures and Continued on Page 2 Page 1