Join us for the first event of the spring professional development programming: 

Teaching for Compassion in the Russian-Language Curriculum

Our workshop will begin with a brief description of our conceptual framework, including how we distinguish between the concepts of “empathy” and “compassion.” We will then share some examples of how teachers at any level of instruction can run activities that foster the development of students’ compassion, based on interviews with more than 40 world language educators.  We will demonstrate how these activities are correlated with our conceptual framework, focusing on both receptive tasks (e.g., response to a text) and productive tasks (that emphasize action). The last two parts of the workshop - and most important – will focus on group work in which participants will develop a receptive compassion-focused task and a productive compassion-focused task. 

Presenters:

Benjamin (“Ben”) Rifkin is a professor of Russian and provost at Fairleigh Dickinson University (NJ). He has published dozens of articles and book chapters on the learning and teaching of Russian and given numerous presentations at AATSEEL and ACTFL as well as invited lectures on the learning/teaching dynamic at universities across the country and around the world.  He presented about the teaching of compassion at the ACTR 50^th Anniversary Conference in April 2025.  Rifkin is the author or coauthor of Russian-language textbooks, including the 2^nd edition, to be published later this year, of Advanced Russian through History.  He and Manuela Wagner are coauthors of a book about teaching compassion in the world language curriculum to be published by ACTFL later this year.

Manuela Wagner is a professor of language education in the Department of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages and Associate Dean for the Humanities and Faculty Inclusion and Success in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Connecticut. Her work centers on critical approaches to language education, examining how educators can cultivate intercultural citizenship and support students’ plurilingual and pluricultural identities. She has published and presented widely on these topics and regularly collaborates with educators in communities of practice to develop, refine, and implement critical, intercultural, and research- and theory-informed curricula.

If you are a graduate student (non-member) requesting a registration fee waiver, email the committee co-chairs to get your registration code at eroby@friendsbalt.org or ikogel@bu.edu.