Fuertes and Scott Constantine Receive Term Faculty Development Awards

New Century College congratulates Professor Suzanne Scott Constantine and Professor Al Fuertes who were both awarded $3,000 Term Faculty Development Awards from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS). These annual awards were created to recognize and assist in the work of term faculty who serve a crucial function in the teaching of CHSS students. Scott Constantine and Fuertes both teach undergraduate courses in New Century College’s Social Justice and Human Rights concentration.

Scott Constantine’s project will further her research and creative exploration of themes of social and racial justice, which form the backbone of her teaching and art. In Spring 2015, she piloted a new capstone course for New Century College, NCLC 475: Creativity as Social Action and Transformation. Through this course, students partnered with non-violent, female offenders who completed their prison sentences and are now re-entering society. Together, capstone participants explored social justice issues and created art that reflects the learning they shared through the semester.

Scott Constantine will attend the Fifth International Symposium on Poetic Inquiry, where she will deepen her understanding of community-based engagement and challenge-driven approaches to teaching and learning. She will research and interview artists and academics who are active in the Vancouver arts and social engagement community, and incorporate new techniques and material in her teaching and art.

Fuertes’s project includes field work to uncover explanations of why very few cases against human traffickers are successfully prosecuted, especially in Cambodia and the Philippines, two countries known to have a high incidence of human trafficking. One unusual point to note, concurrent with Fuertes’ field work in Southeast Asia, he will be leading a group of George Mason students to Southeast Asia in his course NCLC 498: Post Genocide Community Development and Spirituality, and encouraging those students to participate in segments of his data collection. Fuertes also teaches NCLC 475: Human Trafficking and the International Community, and this research will directly contribute to this course’s content as well as Fuertes’ academic research.

Fuertes’s current project will contribute to the body of knowledge on the topic, but equally important, will contribute to a rich classroom experience and offer solace to those most impacted by human traffickers. In April, Fuertes and his students were invited by the Department of Homeland Security to participate in a conference on human trafficking and the critical role that universities can play to raise awareness of this issue.