Recap of a New Community-Building Event: “What I Did This Summer”

As Associate Dean for Research, I have been looking for ways to increase our community’s awareness of what their colleagues are doing. In an effort to reduce this information gap, the Faculty Enrichment Committee and I brainstormed an event entitled “What I Did This Summer.” I am hoping it will become an annual tradition.

The event was structured like a poster session at an academic conference. Every participant displayed and stood next to a poster that summarized their summer activities, including trips, research, and administrative projects.

We had a total of 23 posters–21 from faculty and 2 from staff. As many of you know, it’s incredibly hard to get faculty to self-report about their activities, so self-disclosures from 21 faculty is a treasure trove of information for the marketing team.

We scheduled a noon event during the second week of classes. We had a good student turnout. I saw many positive community-building conversations, both amongst the faculty/staff and with the students. We left the posters on display in the atrium so more students and visitors could see them. I will be sharing the digital posters on social media as well.

If you want to try an event like this at your institution, let me know. I’m happy to share more details about the mechanics.

See a photo album from this event.

Here are the digital posters:

• Center for Global Law and Policy
• Law Enrollment and Operations
• Prof. Adam Abelkop
• Prof. Vangie Abriel
• Prof. Sean Bland
• Prof. Taylor Dalton
• Prof. Eric Goldman
• Prof. Sue Guan
• Prof. Brad Joondeph
• Dean Michael Kaufman
• Prof. Devin Kinyon
• Prof. Linsey Krolik
• Prof. Ed Lee
• Prof. Kerry Macintosh
• Prof. Laura Norris
• Prof. Michelle Oberman
• Prof. Tyler Ochoa
• Associate Dean Thiadora Pina
• Prof. Cathy Sandoval
• Prof. Nick Serafin
• Prof. David Sloss
• Prof. Tseming Yang
• Prof. David Yosifon