Claire was formerly Assistant Director of Studies at Cork English Academy on Hanover street following several years working as an English language teacher. Claire’s primary degree is in English Language, Literature and Culture from NUI Galway and she completed a MA in Writing also at NUI Galway. She brings a wide array and great depth of experience to her role in CIRTL.
Phone: +353 21 490 5117
Email: claire.devaney@ucc.ie
Anna Santucci, PhD (she/lei/sie/ella) joins University College Cork in 2022 as Senior Lecturer in Teaching and Learning Enhancement in CIRTL. She brings to UCC her fervent vocation for Educational Development, her strong commitment to Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, her international experience within diverse Higher Education settings, and her dedication to promoting intentional, learning-centred, and evidence-based teaching across the disciplines.
Before joining UCC, Anna was Faculty Development Specialist in the Office for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning at University of Rhode Island (USA), where she led an array of consultation services, Justice & Equity educational resources, Inclusive Excellence initiatives, and High Impact Teaching programs to foster educators’ agency as reflexive practitioners and engagement with the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.
Anna holds a BA in Modern Languages (Padova, Italy), an MA in English (Nottingham, UK), and a PhD combining Italian Studies and Theatre Arts & Performance Studies (Brown University, USA). During her doctoral studies, she was invited to teach as Visiting Scholar at Dickinson College, and she served for several years as Graduate Teaching Consultant within Brown’s Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning. Her transdisciplinary scholarship, teaching practice, and international collaborations focus on critically inclusive pedagogies informed by applied theatre, performance activism, language education, and intercultural teaching and learning.
Anna believes in education for liberation, and in the powerful ways in which creativity and authentic relationships shape our collective journeys towards positive change. She interrogates power with honesty, values co-creation and shared knowledge, and advocates for systemically supporting equitable success for all teachers and learners. She is excited to join the CIRTL team and contribute her passion and expertise to UCC’s growth and success, especially in relation to:
1) nurturing an evidence-based and intellectually-engaged teaching and learning community; 2) sustaining learning-centered teaching strategies that consider motivation, growth mindset, self-realization, empathy, embodiment, sense of belonging, and affectivity; 3) facilitating multidisciplinary conversations that integrate culturally aware teaching and mentoring, with particular attention to the role played by educators’ own values and identities; 4) directing programmes that address holistic student success as well as the needs of educators as learners themselves; 5) supporting and maintaining local and global partnerships to pursue meaningful organizational change and advance Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.
Email: asantucci@ucc.ie
