Year: 2021

Dr. Lee Skallerup Bessette, a member of the AALE Council of Scholars is the author of a new series in the Chronicle of Higher Education that explores the professional paths and challenges of staff members in higher education. The opening piece in the series, published September 28, 2021, provides advice to faculty on how to translate their skill sets to successfully transition from faculty ranks to staff positions in higher education. Skallerup Bessette is the Assistant Director for Digital Learning and an affiliated faculty member in the Master’s in Learning, Design and Technology program at Georgetown University.  

Dr. Anika Prather, a member of the AALE Council of Scholars, is co-author of the op-ed: “The Post-COVID Classical Education Boom: African Americans and the Great Books”, published in the National Review (September 22, 2021).  Prather is the founder of The Living Water School in Temple Hills, MD. A frequent speaker and writer on the topic of African American students’ engagement with the Great Books tradition, she is currently serving as a Lecturer in the English Department at Howard University.

The American Academy for Liberal Education (AALE) held annual elections on June 8, 2021. Board of Trustees members Geoff Baum and Dale Larson were reelected for a second and fourth term, respectively. Serving on the Executive Committee are: Jacqueline Pfeffer Merrill, Chair; Dale Larson, Vice-Chair/Treasurer; and Joshua Hochschild, Secretary. Joining the Council of Scholars is Anika Prather. 

Ms. Anika Prather is the Founder and Head of School at The Living Water School in Temple Hills (MD. Prather is a Scholar in Residence at the Classical Academic Press (PA), and serves on the task force for diversity at St. John’s College-Annapolis (MD). The author of Living in the Constellation of the Canon: The Lived Experiences of African-American Students Reading Great Books Literature, she has taught Blacks in Classics at Howard University. Prather received her Ph.D. from the University of Maryland (College Park), a Masters in Liberal Arts from St. John’s College-Annapolis (MD), a M.A. from New York University and a B.A. from Howard University (DC).

In light of the COVID-19 interruption to the delivery of on-site education and corresponding educational practices in and outside of the US, the American Academy for Liberal Education (AALE) has adopted a temporary policy pertaining to site visits required for initial accreditation, renewal of accreditation and interim reporting.  

Effective August 1, 2020 through December 31, 2021 virtual site visits are being conducted on a case-by-case basis. The visits are designed to be interactive, and consist of both on-line video sessions and conference calls. Within a reasonable amount of time after a virtual site visit, an on-site visit is required to review facilities. 

AALE plans to evaluate the virtual site visit experience at the end of 2021 to determine if positive aspects of the virtual process can be incorporated into the structure of the traditional on-site visit required for accreditation.