About the guests

D. Fairchild Ruggles is the Debra L. Mitchell Chair in Landscape Architecture and Professor teaching in that Department, which is in the College of Fine and Applied Arts.

Ava Wolf is an assistant director at the Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning.

Episode Summary

Prof Ruggles teaches about architecture and landscapes in the Islamic world, the Mediterranean, and South Asia. She also teaches across three levels of instruction on our campus; undergraduate, graduate and doctoral. Ava Wolf and Bob Dignan at CITL sit down with Dede to explore some guiding thoughts on teaching history, especially teaching with and through primary sources. In the age of the meme, digital native students are quick to assemble and remix media, but how might teachers help translate those energies into the academic traditions of critical analysis. And even further translate those skills and energies into perceptions of story all around us – even in architecture and landscape.

Did you enjoy this episode, or do you have a story to share about your teaching? Drop us a note at ttll@illinois.edu.

This podcast was produced by the Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning at the University of Illinois. Episodes can be found on our website, citl.illinois.edu, and major podcast platforms. We hope you’ll find us there and join the conversation!