Stephanie Cox is a Lecturer in the English Department, where she teaches undergraduate writing courses. She has a B.A. and an M.A., both from Kansas State University.

Jennifer Black is a Lecturer in the English Department, where she teaches courses in Western Humanities, British Literature, and English Composition.  She received her Ph.D. from Boston University and has an M.A. and a B.A. from Brigham Young University.

In recent years, Steph and Jen have been part of a collaboration to study and improve the teaching of writing in online environments.  They have co-presented at the Conference for College Composition and Communication, the Computers and Writing conference, and the National Council for Teachers of English conference.  Steph and Jen are team-teaching the UF100 course “What is the Value of Education?” – both the face-to-face and online versions – in Fall 2012.

Stephanie Cox

Jennifer Black

People have been pursuing higher education and advanced degrees for centuries, but why and to what end?  In this podcast, Dr. Cox and Dr. Black investigate the history of higher education, from Socrates to the present day. They look at what has changed and how the educational process has evolved over the years. Using the fundamentals from their upcoming Foundational Studies Program course, they look at the balance between preparation for a specific career and the value of a broad-based curriculum.  Also included—the role that technology plays in the changing face of higher education, and how to focus on what you can get out of a college education at least as much as the process of getting into a college environment.

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Dr. Vicki Stieha joined Boise State University in August 2011 as the Director of the Foundational Studies Program. Her background in higher education includes the design and administration of curriculum and programs to enhance students’ academic success.  Dr. Stieha’s research interests include analyzing the reshaping of the undergraduate curriculum to meet the needs and challenges of today’s students.  Recent publications include: “Disrupting Relationships: A Catalyst for Growth” (2011) and “Expectations and Experiences: The voice of a first-generation first-year college student and the question of student persistence” (2010).

Rebecca S. Robideaux is a Department of Communication instructor and also the Director of Communication 101 at Boise State University. Her research interests include nonverbal communication and its impact on relationships, both personal and professional. Robideaux is team-teaching the UF100 course “The Life/Work Equation” with Vicki Stieha in fall 2012.

Vicki Stieha

Rebecca Robideaux

How do we balance our careers with other aspects of our lives? Is there an ideal balance, or is the equation mostly subjective? In this podcast, Dr. Stieha examines the evolution of the “work-life balance” dynamic, which entered our national dialog in the mid-1980s as people began to consider the implications for work encroaching on the time that had previously been dedicated to family and leisure. More recently, the idea of “balance” seems to have been abandoned in favor of exploring the variables that go into creating a personal work-life equation. This is a particularly compelling question to explore with students as they prepare for a career (or to re-career) in an increasingly global economy. This presentation offers a sample of the instructors’ Foundational Studies course as they look back a few decades and trace the factors that play into a work-life equation for the three generations currently in the workforce: Baby Boomers, Generation Xers, and Millennials. The podcast also features a discussion of how media reflects the ways we look at the work-life equation.

For more information about work-life balance and generational differences, see:
Smith, Katherine T. (2010). Work-Life Balance Perspectives of Marketing Professionals in Generation Y, Services Marketing Quarterly, 31:4, 434-447.
Gerson, Kathleen. (2009). The unfinished revolution: How a new generation is reshaping family, work, and play in America. New York: Oxford University Press.

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Clay Morgan teaches English at Boise State, and is a charter member of the faculty in the Foundational Studies Program. He also runs Boise State’s The Story Initiative, and co-founded Story Story Night, the monthly storytelling evening in downtown Boise. Morgan has published seven books, including the novel Santiago and the Drinking Party, the young adult novel The Boy Who Spoke Dog, and NASA’s official history of Shuttle-Mir, which earned him NASA’s Public Service Medal, for “exceptional contributions to the mission of NASA.” He was the first writer to win the Idaho Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts.

Clay Morgan

We all love a good story. But what is Story? In this podcast, Foundational Studies professor Clay Morgan answers that question and explores the background, evolution, and context of Story.
Are we born with Story instincts, in the way we have instincts for language? Is Story necessary for us to be truly human? Morgan proposes that Story simulates human life, inside the human mind, by engaging the senses, triggering emotions and creating awareness of consequence and meaning. Story is shared, experiential, chronological thinking. It is the most primal, the most powerful, and the most subtle system of logic, persuasion and communication. Story is how humans inhabit Time, how cultures and individuals remember, and how we plan and dream. Morgan shares his experience and insight in this podcast — by telling stories.

Story Story Night.org

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Dr. Peter Müllner is a professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Boise State, where he has done cutting-edge research on deformation mechanisms of metals and on magnetic shape-memory alloys. He received his diploma and doctoral degrees in Materials Science and Engineering from the ETH Zürich in 1991 and 1994. Dr. Müllner also did post-doctoral work at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the Max-Planck-Institute of Metals in Stuttgart, Germany, and in the Physics Department at ETH Zürich.

Dr. Peter Müllner

Every great invention has a story. In this podcast, Dr. Müllner looks at the evolution of invention and discovery—much like he will in his Foundational Studies course at Boise State this fall. As a case study, Dr. Müllner looks at the development of steel, which had various driving forces including politics, economy, architecture, music, agriculture, war, and even religion. In turn, the availability of steel shaped buildings, landscapes, musical tones, and the courses of wars and economy. This podcast also highlights some historical figures who played significant and sometimes surprising roles. Dr. Müllner puts invention and discovery in context, discussing science and technology as they relate to history and our present day society.

Materials Science and Engineering

Conference on magnetic shape memory alloys

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Dr. Tony Roark is a professor of philosophy at Boise State University. He holds a PhD in philosophy from the University of Washington and conducts research in ancient Greek philosophy. From 2008 to 2011, Dr. Roark co-chaired the Core Reform Task Force, whose charge was to examine Boise State’s general education curriculum and issue recommendations for reform. The recommendations of the Task Force led to the implementation of Boise State’s Foundational Studies Program.

Dr. Tony Roark

There is a growing consensus that universities in the U.S. must adapt their fundamental approach to education in order to preserve the nation’s status as a world leader in discovery and creativity. In this podcast, Dr. Roark examines the current and future state of general education curricula in light of the medieval origins of the university and the evolving structures of human knowledge. He argues that the dramatic growth of human knowledge and increasing intellectual specialization witnessed in the 20th century provide unprecedented opportunities to confront shared challenges, but they also introduce new challenges of their own. Roark claims that, in order to meet their public charge, universities must integrate specialized training with a broad array of multi-disciplinary experiences for students and support for developing non-cognitive competencies.

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