IRT Alumni Come Together and Help Current Scholars During Critical Times
The IRT extended a warm welcome to the new IRT 2025 Cohort into its vibrant and dynamic community during the July Summer Workshop. The Summer Workshop is a major component of the IRT program, inspiring scholars to become future educators that PK-12 through higher education urgently needs. This year, the number of IRT alumni who came back to lend their experiences and insights during these critical times was phenomenal.
Heather Moore Roberson, IRT ’07 & ‘10, is a Co-Curriculum Coordinator for the workshop and hosted the “Chalk Talks”, a podcast-style series that is always engaging and insightful. The “Chalk Talks” delve into the complexities and nuances of graduate school life in today’s context. These sessions feature alumni and other higher education professionals. They share their research agendas, offer advice for navigating graduate school and the Academy, and discuss other relevant topics. The “Chalk Talks” are included in a content hub available to all current scholars as an integral resource to use as their own on-demand learning library; the topics and IRT Alumni speakers are featured below.
Graduate School Ain’t Undergrad – Dr. Heather Moore Roberson, IRT ’07, ‘10
Dr. Moore Roberson is the Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Associate Professor-Community & Justice Studies & Black Studies, and Affiliate Faculty-Education Studies at Allegheny College. This kick-off session features Heather discussing her experiences as both a master’s and Ph.D. student, sharing first-hand experiences on what it really means to be a graduate student. She discusses the unwritten expectations embedded within the graduate school experience, including the roadblocks. She shares her insights and stories to help better prepare IRT Scholars for their graduate studies.
Unwritten Rules of the Academy-Alt Ac and Discovering your Research –
Dr. Tony Perry IRT, 09
Dr. Perry is the Curator of Environmental History at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Tony provides insight into how all the dots started connecting for him in his doctoral program.
Unwritten Rules of the Academy-Discovering Discovering Your Research Project – Dr. Aria Halliday, IRT ‘11
Dr. Halliday is an Associate Professor in the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies and the program in African American and Africana Studies at the University of Kentucky. Aria spoke about her journey obtaining her master’s and doctorate degrees in five years and what it took to get there.
Unwritten Rules of the Academy-Being a Professor at an R1
Dr. Beau Gaitors, IRT ‘06
Dr. Gaitors is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Beau talked about producing research while teaching classes at an R1 university.
Inclusive Excellence and The Landscape of Higher Education
Dr. Joe-Joe McManus
An award-winning author and sought-after speaker, Dr. McManus brings experience from faculty, staff, and executive roles, including Chief Diversity Officer, coach, and educational consultant. Joe-Joe discussed his work around diversity and inclusion and the core frames of thought around this area that may affect the current cohort.
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