Fabian Alfie and Borbala Gaspar, faculty in the Italian Studies program, are among 20 University of Arizona faculty and staff selected to join the University of Arizona’s 2022-23 Inclusive Leadership Institute.

 

The Inclusive Leadership Institute seeks to foster champions who engage and lead crucial conversations around improving organizational learning and an inclusive campus community.

 

Dr. Alfie is a Professor of Italian who specializes in the Middle Ages, including Dante and Boccaccio. Medieval Studies is a field that developed in part as a type of examination of the roots of the modern nation-states; thus, it retains presuppositions that can feel exclusionary. His recent research has been part of the movement to break out of that mindset, and he aims to include a more open view in his teaching.

 

Dr. Gaspar is a Lecturer in Italian, with a Ph.D. in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching. She became interested in diversity, equity and justice while she was working on her dissertation on underrepresented foreign language learners. Borbala’s research focuses on learners’ voices, specifically their engagement in project-based learning and engagement with social justice materials.

 

The Inclusive Leadership Institute’s goal is to develop thought-leaders who can advance inclusive excellence in innovative and impactful ways. The Inclusive Fellows support and advance the university’s commitment to inclusion by infusing it into their classrooms, research labs, and outreach because significant learning happens when people work with others who are different from themselves.

 

This is the third Inclusive Leadership cohort to include College of Humanities faculty and staff.

 

The inaugural 2019-20 Inclusive Leadership program included three COH participants: Abraham Acosta, Associate Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese; Sumayya Granger, Associate Director of the Center for English as a Second Language; and Andrea Holm, now Director of the Writing Skills Improvement Program. Denis M. Provencher, Professor in the Department of French and Italian, joined the 2020-2021 Inclusive Leadership program.