Chris Minnix, Ph.DAssociate Professor of English and Director of Freshman Composition Chris Minnix, Ph.D., is the new director of UAB’s Signature Core Curriculum, a broad array of courses slated to launch in fall 2022. The new Signature Core is designed to help students develop critical, analytical thinking and data-driven decision-making skills, encourage engagement in communities to solve real-world problems, teach communication skills and enable students to discuss new ideas and question biases and assumptions.
Minnix specializes in composition studies and rhetorical theory, with specific emphases on public writing, rhetorical education and political rhetoric. During his candidate presentation Jan. 29 he said he plans to integrate the interdisciplinary nature of rhetoric and communication into the core curriculum to break down silos and bring different disciplines into alignment.
“My vision of the core is a space of collaborative dialogue between faculty and students where we construct projects and studies that enable us to articulate shared connections between different bodies and domains of knowledge,” he said.
|
“My vision of the core is a space of collaborative dialogue between faculty and students where we construct projects and studies that enable us to articulate shared connections between different bodies and domains of knowledge.” |
He added that he hopes to use Birmingham as a text for teachers to use and students to explore, whether through case studies or field research, in order to learn about the city as both a local and globalizing space. The principle that guides his work, he explains, is transformative storytelling.
“I want students to be able to tell the story of their core experience and this city through their own research as they position themselves in the bodies of the core,” he said.
Mike Sloane, Ph.D., chair-elect of the Faculty Senate and associate professor of psychology, says Minnix’s role in transforming English composition curriculum and his experience as a leader in exploring alternative pedagogical methods and the use of visual media and other means of expression in his courses are essential to the dynamic nature of the Signature Core Curriculum. Several years ago, Minnix and other English instructors launched a new developmental writing program for freshman composition that focused on the writer a student could become in a learning environment that is more productive and positive.
|
“Chris is a nationally recognized scholar on the interface of rhetoric and higher education, particularly as it pertains to issues in American universities. We look forward to his leadership in implementing a unique and transformative core curriculum for future cohorts of UAB undergraduates.” |
"On behalf of the Faculty Senate I would like to congratulate Dr. Chris Minnix on his appointment as director of UAB’s new Signature Core Curriculum,” Sloane said. “Chris is a nationally recognized scholar on the interface of rhetoric and higher education, particularly as it pertains to issues in American universities. We look forward to his leadership in implementing a unique and transformative core curriculum for future cohorts of UAB undergraduates.”
UAB’s current core curriculum was established in the 1990s; the new Signature Core, an integral component of the education pillar of Forging the Future, UAB’s strategic plan, will provide competencies critical for a 21st century curriculum and better equip students to meet their post-graduation goals.
Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Pam Benoit, Ph.D., worked with deans and the UAB Faculty Senate to establish the Signature Core Curriculum Committee led by Alison Chapman, Ph.D., professor and chair in the Department of English ,and Suzanne Judd, Ph.D., professor of biostatistics in the UAB School of Public Health. They engaged the campus community through a number of initiatives to provide direction to the new course plan.
|
“I look forward to Dr. Minnix engaging faculty and students to further develop connections with some of the most unique parts of our community and advance learning about the relationship between local and global issues.” |
“In developing the curriculum, it was made obvious that integrating classroom learning with local and world events is foundational to the undergraduate experience at UAB,” Judd said. “The new curriculum will provide multiple paths for students to be engaged in solving modern-day problems and serving their communities. I look forward to Dr. Minnix overseeing this exciting opportunity for our students.”
Other public universities in Alabama have made small adjustments to their core curricula in past years, but UAB is the first to undertake a revision on this scale, according to Judd. It also is the first to connect the learning experience to a heightened understanding of place.
“The curriculum committee has done an outstanding job of developing new learning opportunities for students and selecting a qualified director to build on the momentum is an exciting next step,” Benoit. “I look forward to Dr. Minnix engaging faculty and students to further develop connections with some of the most unique parts of our community and advance learning about the relationship between local and global issues.”
Karen Templeton, director of communications in the Office of the Provost, contributed to this report.
