Eleven faculty members from five different colleges and schools across campus will develop or retool nine undergraduate courses with a public interest technology focus.
The UMass Amherst Public Interest Technology Initiative (PIT@UMass) is delighted to announce its inaugural cohort of PIT Faculty Fellows for 2022–2023. Eleven individuals from five different colleges and schools across campus will develop or retool nine undergraduate courses with a public interest technology focus.
PIT@UMass is a new initiative focused on enhancing and expanding the educational, research, experiential learning, and outreach offerings at UMass Amherst that build social literacy, tech literacy, and the critical thinking needed to promote the public interest in today’s world. The PIT Fellows’ courses will build curricula and content for PIT@UMass and increase the number of courses relevant to a new all-campus certificate in Public Interest Technology being planned. PIT@UMass will partner with the UMass Amherst Center for Teaching and Learning to provide the new PIT Fellows support for course development during an intensive summer workshop.
Courses being developed or revised range from social entrepreneurship and health economics to sociology and English, and include public-focused content and projects in leadership and teacher education.
“I am thrilled to work with these outstanding faculty from across disciplines to expand the public interest technology curriculum for UMass Amherst undergraduate students,” says Francine Berman, research professor and director of PIT@UMass. “A 21st-century education requires both an understanding of today’s challenges and the tools to address them. Our new PIT Fellows and the PIT@UMass initiative will help provide that for our students.”
The 2022–2023 PIT Faculty Fellows are:
College of Education
- Ruth-Ellen Verock, teacher education and curriculum studies
College of Humanities and Fine Arts
- Sarah Patterson, English
Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences
- Matt Rattigan, information and computer sciences
- Michelle Trim, information and computer sciences
- Siobhan Meï, information and computer sciences
- Neena Thota, information and computer sciences
College of Social and Behavioral Sciences
- Sanjiv Gupta, sociology
- Jennifer Lundquist, sociology
- Lucy Wang, resource economics
- Jonathan Wynn, sociology
Isenberg School of Management
- Bogdan Prokopovytch, management
For more information about public interest technology at UMass Amherst, please email pit@umass.edu or visit the PIT@UMass website.