Past Provost Colloquium Presentations
A Rainbow of Possibilities: New Perspectives on LGBTQIA+ Affirmative Clinical Practice and Research
March 15, 2024
Presentation Abstract: LGBTQIA+ populations are growing in number with younger generations; a recent national poll suggests that 1 in 5 Gen Z adults identifies as LGBTQIA+. Greater media visibility and gains in legal rights and protections in the 21st century have been accompanied by an intense anti-LGBTQIA+ backlash in many U.S. states, particularly in the 2020s. Against the backdrop of these competing social forces, the fields of psychology and counseling have gradually become more inclusive of LGBTQIA+ populations, largely through clinical practice and research studies that take an affirmative approach. This colloquium will explore the state of LGBTQIA+ affirmative clinical practice and research, exploring some of the current challenges in the field and barriers to greater LGBTQIA+ inclusion. Together, we will creatively explore the rainbow of possibilities for overcoming these barriers and advancing clinical practice and research with LGBTQIA+ populations in the second half of the 2020s. Finally, we will examine this emerging rainbow from another angle – namely, what insights our work with LGBTQIA+ populations might have to offer that could bring valuable new perspectives to clinical practice and research with non-LGBTQIA+ populations.
Leveraging AI to Transform Pedagogy
March 6, 2024
Donna Sheperis, PhD, LPC, NCC, ACS, CCMHC
Presentation Abstract: Artificial Intelligence is already being utilized in healthcare, including mental health, to enhance patient outcomes and streamline processes. Applications of AI include virtual assistants, chatbots, and predictive analytics for clinical decision making. It is time our educational practices caught up with practices in the field. This presentation will introduce the ways in which various forms of artificial intelligence can be used to enhance pedagogy. In addition, we will discuss the challenges and limitations of this work such as privacy, security, ethical considerations, legal compliance, and the potential for perpetuating biases.
Overcoming Social Constraints: A Multi-level Obstacle to Trauma Recovery
January 22, 2024
Presentation Abstract: Traumatic experiences can drastically impact views of ourselves, the future, and the world. According to the social cognitive processing model, talking with receptive and supportive others helps process emotions, realistically appraise the trauma, receive reassurance, find meaning, and move toward recovery. However, negative social responses to talking about trauma (i.e., social constraints) inhibit cognitive-emotional processing and are associated with poorer adjustment (e.g., PTSD, depression). This colloquium discussed the phenomenon and impact of individual, dyadic, systemic, and societal social constraints. During this Colloquium, attendees learned together about the relevance and implications of this far-reaching phenomenon to their own personal, clinical, research, and social justice work.
Our Intersectional Humanity: Navigating Our Work in a Diverse and Polarized World
October 18, 2023
Presentation Abstract: Every person -student, staff, and faculty- is operating from their sociocultural identities and backgrounds, lived experiences, and ideologies. We supervise, learn, work, teach, facilitate, and practice within a broader sociocultural, political, and historical context, and as the U.S. becomes more divided around gender, race, and politics, the diversity within our classrooms and other institutional spaces can lead to vulnerable, emotional, and fraught statements and conversations. These interpersonal and intergroup dynamics are complicated and difficult for students, educators, and staff members to navigate- a challenge with an added layer of complexity for people who hold marginalized identities. Together, we held space for an interactive discussion framed around a set of questions: How does the sociopolitical climate emerge in the work of our daily lives? How can we engage in our work and the tasks of our roles as multifaceted, intersectional people? In what ways might our disciplines better support work that attends to multiplicity and the complexities of reality? What resources do we truly need to navigate the minefield of expressed ideological and attitudinal diversity?