The Wally Cordes Teaching and Faculty Support Center is excited to invite you to an informal conversation about teaching with the February Cordes Chair, Janine Parry. In her 26th – and final – year at the UA, Dr. Parry hopes to engage the group in conversation about Community: Why it is Essential and Practical Techniques for Building it.

Dr. Parry, now University Professor of Political Science, has worn many hats since accepting a tenure-track appointment in 1998. In addition to teaching more than 6,000 students (from the introductory to the Ph.D. level) and authoring more than 50 scholarly works, she has co-led the UA’s Teaching and Faculty Support Center, chaired Faculty Senate, directed the Arkansas Poll, carried mini-fridges to the top of Reid Hall, and otherwise endeavored to contribute to campus life. Closing this chapter of her professional life as a Cordes Chair is a particular honor.

The Wally Cordes Teaching and Faculty Support Center invites six outstanding teaching faculty each academic year to serve as Wally Cordes Chairs. Faculty are selected as Cordes Chairs because they embody the student-centered teaching excellence that late University Professor Emeritus Wally Cordes exhibited throughout his 40-plus-year U of A career.