Date: April 8, 2022
This event was a Provost Innovation Fellows Event, co-sponsored by the Office of the Provost.
Featured Speaker(s)
Arlene Torres, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Africana, Puerto Rican/Latino Studies at Hunter College. She is a cultural anthropologist with expertise in Caribbean, Latina/Latino, and Latin American Studies.
As a public intellectual, Dr. Torres has served as a member of the Advisory Board and consultant to a national project on RACE supported by the American Anthropological Association, National Science Foundation and Ford Foundation. She is past-president of the Puerto Rican Studies Association and Past-President of the Association of Latina and Latino Anthropologists, a division of the American Anthropological Association.
Torres’ publications include two edited volumes with Norman E. Whitten, Jr. titled, Blackness in Latin America and the Caribbean. “Collecting Puerto Ricans” in Kevin Yelvington (ed.) Afro-Atlantic Dialogues: Anthropology in the Diaspora also reflects Torres’ scholarship and intellectual concerns. Her recent work focuses on the racialization of ethnic groups in varied cultural and institutional settings.
Professor Torres works on several university, college-wide, and community organizations to support the educational advancement of underrepresented communities in higher education. As an administrative and faculty mentor, she co-directed the CUNY-Harvard Leadership Development Program, the Mellon Faculty Diversity Career Enhancement Grant and the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program at Hunter College. She served as the University Dean for Recruitment and Diversity and the Director of the Chancellor’s Latino Faculty Initiative in Academic Affairs in the Central Administration at CUNY. She also previously served as Chair of Latina and Latino Studies at the University of Illinois before joining the faculty at Hunter College, CUNY.
Tools for Clear Speech Program (TfCS)
- DJ Dolack is the Director of the Tools for Clear Speech (TfCS) Program at Baruch College. DJ earned a BFA in Writing from Emerson College, and an MFA from Vermont College, Union Institute and University. He came to Baruch in 2006 as a consultant in the College’s Writing Center, and has continued to help improve the communication skills of Baruch students as an adjunct lecturer in the English Department, the Writing and Communications Tutorial Coordinator at the Student Academic Consulting Center, and in his current position at TfCS.
- Kim Edmunds is the TfCS Curriculum Specialist. Kim holds an MA in TESOL from Teachers College, Columbia University and a BA in Linguistics and Creative Writing from Emory University. She has been working with ESL learners in various capacities for over 8 years, specializing in teaching speaking and pronunciation skills. At Baruch, she enjoys pursuing her interests in phonetics and phonology, working with English learners in higher education settings, and sharing her passion for finding a voice in a new language. She is also an adjunct faculty member in the Hunter College MA TESOL program, The New School’s Certificate in Teaching English, and the NYU English Language Institute.
- Tristan Thorne is the TfCS Associate Director. Tristan holds a BA in Language Studies from UC Santa Cruz and an MA in Applied Linguistics from Teachers College, Columbia University. He has more than ten years of English teaching experience in Spain, Japan, and the United States. At TfCS, Tristan spearheads specialized cohort programming, assessment analysis and norming, and staff professional development. His interests include second language identity, pronunciation teaching practices, and assessment of second language speaking skills.
Resources Shared