Graves-Bayazitoglu named director of McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning

By Office of the Dean of the College on Aug. 4, 2016, 11:40 a.m.
Rebecca Graves-Bayazitoglu

Rebecca Graves-Bayazitoglu

Photo by Sameer Khan

Rebecca Graves-Bayazitoglu has been appointed director of Princeton University's McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning and associate dean of the college. She began her new position July 18.

Graves-Bayazitoglu has worked at Princeton since 2003, most recently as dean of Whitman College for nearly a decade. As director of the McGraw Center, she will support faculty members who seek to enrich their courses with new materials, methods or technologies. She also will oversee the center's many programs and services in support of student learning and academic success — including tutoring, study halls and academic skills workshops.

"We are thrilled that Rebecca has accepted this position," said Dean of the College Jill Dolan. "Her exciting vision for the future, her talent to inspire colleagues, and her history of accomplishments as a campus leader and residential college dean make her the perfect choice to lead the McGraw Center. Rebecca will enhance McGraw's engagement with faculty and with students; she'll innovate our inclusive classrooms program; and she'll ensure that McGraw continues to be a vital resource across campus."

The McGraw Center offers a number of programs to support faculty members and instructors as they advance as teachers, graduate students as they begin their teaching practice, and undergraduates as they develop as learners and scholars.

Graves-Bayazitoglu said she is honored to lead the McGraw Center.

"I am thrilled to join the excellent McGraw staff and contribute to their work supporting our faculty, graduate students and undergraduates," she said. "As bittersweet as it is for me to leave Whitman College, my new role will allow me to put my experiences teaching and advising in the service of all of Princeton's students and faculty, and continue McGraw's important work assisting faculty as they explore new pedagogical approaches and assisting our students as they become more powerful, productive and independent learners."

A seasoned academic adviser who has worked closely with undergraduates at all stages of their Princeton career, Graves-Bayazitoglu said she is "especially excited to create a forum in the McGraw Center for cross-departmental and cross-constituency conversations about inclusive teaching practices, and to work with a broad range of campus partners to reflect on how service learning, international experiences and entrepreneurship are broadening and deepening the Princeton experience."

A graduate of Middlebury College, Graves-Bayazitoglu was selected for a Fulbright Teaching Assistantship in France prior to joining Princeton's Department of French and Italian as a doctoral candidate. She received her Ph.D. from Princeton in 2002. Graves-Bayazitoglu taught literature, language and film at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and at Haverford College. She returned to Princeton in 2003 to join the residential college staff of Rockefeller College.

During her tenure in Princeton's residential colleges, Graves-Bayazitoglu has also directed the humanities program of the Freshman Scholars Institute and participated in several campus-wide committees, including the Steering Committee on Undergraduate Women's Leadership and the Residential College Task Force. She currently serves on the Advisory Council for Women's Leadership, a sponsor of the Princeton Women's Mentoring Group, and she is an academic-athletic fellow for the women's soccer team.

Graves-Bayazitoglu succeeds Lisa Herschbach, who is now head of the upper school division for a new independent school opening in Bentonville, Arkansas.
 

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