Katia Levintova

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UW-Green Bay

Professor, Political Science, Global Studies,and Democracy and Justice Studies
Wisconsin Teaching Fellow, 2012-13

 

As I reflect back on my career since I participated in WTFS about 10 years ago (2012-13), I am struck at how different my professional interests are now compared to my early career priorities, including the dramatic shift in my research and teaching interests. Of course, part of it comes with getting tenure and promotion and not conducting cost–benefit analysis of early career academics (see the “publish or perish” tenure clock literature or The Chair with Sandra Oh for more on that) as I used to. But, I would say, this shift is much more philosophical and heartfelt. It is not just about institutional requirements of teaching–research–and–service. It is about my whole academic identity and what I value most.  When I started SoTL research (through OPID’s Lesson Study Grant) back in 2008, it was a novelty project for me, something I never expected to lead to the deep commitment to both teaching and systematic study of the best practices in teaching and learning. From presentations and articles to book chapters and actually editing a book based on various SoTL projects, I feel like my most impactful scholarship happens in this thriving and very collegial part of academia.

When I think about the readership of my own disciplinary research, I always wonder how many people might be reading my articles and book chapters societal determinants of public policies? Do I even know who reads my articles? Do people read them just to include in their own literature reviews, a requisite and formulaic part of any disciplinary research? In my own classroom, I strive for relationship building, for reciprocity and creativity, but I noticed that my own disciplinary research agenda often felt isolating and definitely not very reciprocal. I always felt that I needed the journals and the readers much more than they needed me.

SoTL research, as I discovered, is immediate, personal, authentic, and reciprocal. Not only do I get extremely helpful feedback from supportive and enthusiastic colleagues, but I can see results of SoTL research almost instantaneously, by implementing research findings and recommendations from my SoTL comrades–in–arms’ studies (or even using my own SoTL discoveries). I know that our SoTL research has direct or indirect impact on hundreds of students and many colleagues, that they need this research and the benefits will extend beyond one classroom or one year. It might be a footnote, but it is a footnote with legs. It might help improve teaching and learning, a timeless process, in general. And for that philosophical shift, I am grateful to OPID and WTFS!

Being a part of WTFS opened other portals for me. It allowed me to meet likeminded colleagues (who are also now friends) not only on my campus and in Wisconsin, but all over the country and even the world. I have been a member of several communities of practice and research seminars, places that encourage and enable co–authorship and collaboration. And we stay in touch despite changing employment or family situations or our own project collaborations coming to an end. My SoTL colleagues inspire me, they cheer me on, they are my sounding boards and I hope they feel the same with me. Just yesterday, on a Zoom call with my SoTL collaborators from California and Maryland, I felt seen and heard and received a much needed empathy. I feel like I am finally living out my own advice to students –– “find your people,” be a part of community, get a strong sense of belonging. What I could not always get in my own disciplinary community, I definitely found in the SoTL one.

So how did this dramatic shift occur? And what role did OPID and WTFS play in it? I still vividly remember my first carpooling trip to Faculty College (held on the bucolic UW Richland Center campus) and learning about WTFS program and then returning to this gathering as the Wisconsin Teaching Fellow myself the following year (that time carpooling with then WTFS co-director David Voelker). It was an invigorating event (I still have a picture of all of us at the final cookout which felt like a cool summer campout), where people discussed teaching and learning, deeply, passionately, and creatively. I truly felt at home, both physically and intellectually. My year of intense SoTL research through WTFS brought new questions about my teaching, questions I wanted to unlock. My research centered on active learning vs. traditional lecturing in mastering multidisciplinary threshold concepts in large general education classes. Unexpectedly, my embrace of active learning (simulations) was thrown into question, as counterintuitive findings started to emerge. It turned out that simulations could only go so far in teaching complex topics. But even that process was truly transformative –– my undergraduate research collaborator and I collected data, tried to make sense of it, discussed revisions to our pedagogy, wrote our article and it got published! Later, that collaboration resulted in shared work on the Gender in Political Science Classroom, a volume I co–edited with another WTFS alum and a later co-director, Alison Staudinger, that featured three collaborators from my WTFS year. And later, the four of WTFS alums worked together on a chapter about Gender in doing SoTL work.  One of the most asked about pieces of my research is a recent piece on student parents and HIPs and it was done in collaboration between Kimberley Reilly (a recent UWGB WTFS). And, I should mention my continued work with Denise Scheberle, now retired, but also a former WFTS. You can tell, we WTFSers find each other on our campuses and beyond! I am so proud that Danny Mueller, my former undergraduate collaborator for WTFS project, went on to get his PhD in Political Science from Washington State University and now works there as associate research professor. You can say that WTFS had an impact on his career as well, in a small way, as our article was his first outing into peer reviewed publishing.

The work that WTSF inspired, facilitated, and supported, long after I completed my year of SoTL research, also led to my involvement with Elon University’s Center for Engaged Learning (co–directed by Peter Felton and Jessie Moore) and the national/international SoTL work that that group is committed to. I was delighted to work with 7 collaborators on student pathways toward meaningful global learning, publishing two chapters and co–presenting to various audiences with them. Currently, I am working on multi-institutional, multi-year research project on effective mentoring for underrepresented student populations on our campuses with 5 other colleagues from University of California–Santa Barbara, University of Liege (Belgium), Methodist University (NC), Elon University, and University of Maryland–Baltimore County. I would not have the confidence, the skills, or the ability to work collaboratively on very lengthy and complex SoTL projects, if it was not for WTFS.

The SoTL research that I do, naturally, is of practical application, first of all to my own interactions with students. How I teach now, is so far from where I started as a graduate teaching assistant, just trying to memorize material and survive each class. I now LOVE teaching and look forward to every class. And the classes I teach definitely shifted from lectures only, to seminars, practicums, internships, undergraduate research –– anything that would allow me to do more mentoring, to interact with each individual student an in authentic, helpful way, to see each student and their strengths and needs.

I am forever grateful to WTFS program and all the people in its orbit for helping me find my academic voice, my community, and, in a sense, my calling.

Biography:

Ekaterina (Katia) Levintova is a Professor of Political Science, Global Studies, and Democracy and Justice Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay where she teaches courses on comparative politics, American elections, international relations, and first year seminars. Levintova also directs student internships in her area. Her research interests and publications focus on political sociology of post-Communist societies and societal determinants of foreign policy. Her work appeared in Europe-Asia Studies, Nationalities Papers, Party Politics, Journal of Political Science Education, and Journal of Communist and Post-Communist Studies. She is co-editor (with Alison Staudinger) of Gender in Political Science Classroom (Indiana University Press, 2018). Among her most recent publications are Scholarship of Teaching and Learning works examining student parents and HIPs, gender divisions in doing SoTL research, active learning about sustainability, problem-based learning, and patterns of global education. She is a recipient of University of Wisconsin Regents Award for Teaching Excellence, UW-Green Bay’s Founders Award for Excellence in Teaching, and Student Nominated Teaching Award for both experienced and early career teachers. Levintova co-directs UW-Green Bay’s Center for Civic Engagement (with David Coury and Ashley Heath) and its signature Civic Scholars Program bridging the gap between campus and community through a high-impact community-based learning.

SoTL Grants:

  • Elon UniversityCenter for Engaged Learning’s Research Seminar on Mentoring Meaningful Learning Experiences (2023-2025)
  • Elon University Center for Engaged Learning’s Research Seminar on Global Learning Grant (2015-2017)
  • UWGB Teaching Scholar Grant (2013-2014)
  • UW System Wisconsin Teaching Fellows Program Grant (2012-2013)
  • UWGB Interdisciplinary Lesson Study Grant (with Jen Zapf) (2009-2010)
  • UWGB Teaching Scholar Grant (2008-2009)

SoTL Publications:

Books and Book Chapters:

  • Valerie Barske, Ekaterina Levintova, Valerie Murrenus Pilmaier, and Darci Thoune, “SoTL and the Gendered Division of Labor on Our Campuses: A Case for More Equity and Change in Professional Values,” in Kirsti K. Cole and Holly Hassel, eds. Academic Labor beyond the College Classroom: Working for Our Values (Routledge, 2019)
  • Ekaterina Levintova, Sabine Smith, Rebecca Cruise, Iris Berdrow, Dan Paracka, Laura Boudon, and Paul Worley, “Have Interest, Will NOT Travel: Multi-Institutional Study of Unexpected Reasons of Why Students Opt Out of Study Abroad,” in Amanda Sturgill and Nina Namaste, eds. Mind the Gap (Stylus, 2020)
  • Iris Berdrow, Rebecca Cruise, Ekaterina Levintova, Sabine Smith, Dan Paracka, Laura Boudon, and Paul Worley, “Exploring Patterns of Student Global Learning Choices: A Multi-Institutional Analysis,” in Amanda Sturgill and Nina Namaste, eds. Mind the Gap (Stylus, 2020)
  • Ekaterina Levintova and Alison Staudinger, eds. Gender in Teaching and Learning in Political Science and Related Disciplines (Indiana University Press, June 2018) – authored or co-authored 3 chapters in the volume
  • Christine Vanden Houten, Joan Groessl, and Ekaterina Levintova, “How Do You Use Problem-Based Learning to Improve Interdisciplinary Thinking?” in David Voelker and Regan Gurung, eds. Big Picture Pedagogy (Jossey-Bass, 2017)

Peer-Reviewed Articles:

  • Ekaterina Levintova, “Internship Experiences in Political Science and Cognate Social Science Disciplines: Investigating Barriers and Exploring Solution to Increase Access for All,” Canadian Journal of Scholarship for Teaching and Learning (under review).
  • Kimberley A. Reilly and Ekaterina M. Levintova, “Student Parents and HIPs: Missing Out on High-Impact Practices,” The Journal of Continuing Higher Education, 70:1, pp. 1-13 (published online on January 4, 2022, available at:10.1080/07377363.2021.2001615 and https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/07377363.2021.2001615).
  • Ekaterina M. Levintova and Daniel W. Mueller, “Sustainability: Teaching an Interdisciplinary Threshold Concept through Traditional Lecture and Active Learning,” The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning 6:1 (2015), Article 3. Available at: http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cjsotl_rcacea/vol6/iss1/3. Published online: March 31, 2015
  • Ekaterina Levintova, Terri Johnson, Denise Scheberle, and Kevin Vonck, “Global Citizens Are Made, Not Born: Multi-Class Role-Playing Simulation of Global Decision-Making,” Journal of Political Science Education 7:3 (2011), 245-274

SoTL Papers presented at conferences and research seminars:     

  • Ekaterina Levintova and Laura Boudon, Elon University’s Center for Engaged Learning, Webinar to discuss our chapter (9) “Have Interest, Will NOT Travel: Unexpected Reasons Why Students Opt Out of International Study,” in Mind the Gap: Global Learning at Home and Abroad, Amanda Sturgill and Nina Namaste, eds., with Neal W. Sobania and Michael Vande Berg, Sterling, VA: Stylus, June 18, 2020
  • “Student Parents Navigating HIPS on College Campuses,” 2020 UW System OPID Conference, Madison, WI, UW campus, April 17, 2020 (with Kim Reilly) – cancelled due to Covid-19 pandemic
  • “SoTL and the Gendered Division of Labor on Our Campuses: A Case for More Equity and Change in Professional Values,” 2019 4W Summit, Madison, WI, UW campus, April 13, 2019 (with Valerie Barske, Valerie Murrenus Pilmaier, and Darci Thoune)
  • Roundtable session “Debate, Discourse, and Inclusion in the Political Science Classroom,” American Political Science Association (APSA) Annual Meeting, August 31, 2018, Boston, MA (with Boris Ricks, Sara Wallace Goodman, and Andrew Parker Teas)
  • Research panel session “Integrating Off-Campus Global Learning with the University Experience,” AAC&U Annual Meeting, January 25, 2018, Washington DC (with Iris Berdrow, Amanda Sturgill, and Jessie Moore)
  • Panel presentation “Global Learning Experiences: How Do Student Choice Patterns of Global Learning Experiences Vary by Institutional Characteristics?,” Symposium on Integrating Global Learning with the University Experience: Higher-Impact Study Abroad and Off-Campus Domestic Study. Center for Engaged Learning at Elon University, June 11-12, 2017 (poster and traditional presentation)
  • Panel presentation “Gender Issues in Teaching in Traditionally Male-Dominated Social Sciences: Student Perceptions, Gender Identities, Feminist Pedagogies, and Empowerment,” Transformative Education: Equity. Sustainability, Empowerment. Second 4W Summit on Women, Gender, and Welbeing, Madison, WI, April 27-29, 2017
  • “Gender Issues in Teaching and Learning in Political Science Classroom,” International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Quebec City, Canada, October 22-25, 2014
  • “Teaching Ill-Defined Concepts in Introductory Political Science Courses: Defining and Thinking about Sustainability,” Mid-West Political Science Association Annual Conference, Chicago, IL, April 11-14, 2013
  • “Teaching Interdisciplinary Threshold and Bottleneck Concepts: Sustainability in General Education Classroom,” UW System Teaching Conference, Madison, WI, April 18-19, 2013
  • “Teaching Global Citizenship Through Global Summit on Sustainability,” UW System President’s Summit on Excellence in Teaching and Learning, Madison, WI, May 1-2, 2010