Faculty College 2027

47th Annual Faculty College 2027

The Power of Teaching

THE OSTHOFF RESORT at Elkhart Lake, WI
June 1-4, 2027

Teaching is at the heart of higher education. More than 10,500 classroom instructors across the Universities of Wisconsin carry out the educational mission of our institutions every day, shaping student learning and success. Like every area of professional practice, teaching benefits from ongoing reflection, collaboration, and opportunities to learn from existing and emerging research. At a time when many faculty members are balancing significant teaching, scholarship, service, and advising responsibilities, Faculty College offers dedicated space to examine current practices, exchange ideas with colleagues, and identify purposeful next steps. This growth-oriented work builds on instructors’ existing strengths while expanding the ways we can support learning, belonging, and student success.

The theme for Faculty College 2027 is The Power of Teaching led by Dr. David Gooblar. Morning workshops will invite participants to explore specific, evidence-informed shifts in teaching mindset and practice that can help more students thrive, especially students who have encountered barriers to success in college. Afternoons will provide time to process morning workshops independently and in community with systemwide and university colleagues.

David Gooblar

I’m an Associate Professor of English at the University of Iowa. I’ve had this position since the fall of 2020, when I was hired in a split appointment between English and Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies. I left GWSS (long story) in July 2024 and am now 100% in the English Department. Before this job, I was Associate Director of the Center for Advancement of Teaching at Temple University. And before that, I was a Lecturer in Rhetoric here at Iowa. Since the fall of 2025, I’ve been Director of our General Education Literature program, where I oversee 155 sections of a gen ed course called “Interpreting Literature,” taken by more than 1500 Iowa students every year.

My PhD is in English, and my academic identity up until, say, 2014 was as a scholar of American literature. I wrote my dissertation, which became my first book, on Philip Roth. After after many thankless years drifting fearfully in the shark-infested waters of the post-crash academic job market, I found a life raft in the subject of pedagogy, which I fell in love with while teaching as an adjunct. The first Pedagogy Unbound (a website) led to the second Pedagogy Unbound (a column at The Chronicle of Higher Education), which led to a job on the instructional track, and then the book on teaching I wish I had when I was a graduate student. The Missing Course was published by Harvard University Press in 2019.

My newest book, One Classroom at a Time: How Better Teaching Can Make College More Equitable, was published, again by HUP, in August 2025. It came out in paperback in September 2026. In it, I argue that the classroom has been neglected by universities in their attempts to achieve equitable outcomes. The book shows how implementing the right kind of pedagogy, one designed to help all students—including those marginalized by our society and our colleges’ status quo practices—is as achievable as it is necessary.

I frequently give talks and design workshops for faculty, most often on the kind of equitable pedagogy One Classroom at a Time advocates for. It’s one of my favorite things to do: travelling to a new campus, meeting and working with dedicated and inspiring teachers, sharing my research with people who are excited to find new ways to help their students. In recent years, I’ve worked with faculty at Harvard, Loyola University Chicago, the University of Tulsa, and the University of Mississippi, among others.