Katherine (Kate) Stanton has been named director of the McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning and associate dean of the college, effective Feb. 24. She has filled this role on an interim basis since July 1, 2019.
Kate Stanton
“Commitment to good teaching at a distinguished research institution remains a key responsibility and a notable, enduring part of Princeton’s ethos,” says Dean of the College Jill Dolan. “Devising new teaching formats through technology as well as through face-to-face learning and responding to the shift in our campus demographics requires a nimble, creative leader. I’m confident that Kate Stanton will be an energetic, thoughtful partner for teaching and learning initiatives on campus.”
As the director of the McGraw Center, Stanton will lead the center’s multi-faceted work with faculty and students. This includes support for new teaching initiatives; educational and classroom technologies; learning programs and instructional design for both classroom and online environments; and graduate student pedagogy programs.
Stanton will also oversee the center’s many programs to support undergraduate and graduate student learning, including undergraduate tutoring, study halls, academic skills workshops and more. Stanton said, “We’re committed to sharing with students the research on how humans learn and to making the ‘hidden curriculum’ of higher education more apparent.”
Stanton has served as the McGraw Center’s senior associate director for teaching initiatives and programs for faculty since 2017. In that role, she revitalized faculty programming, with an emphasis on making teaching more public and visible at Princeton. Most notably, she developed a distinguished teaching series in which faculty members demonstrate and reflect on their pedagogy with their peers. Stanton also developed the inaugural Princeton Teaching Week, which highlights the range and variety of teaching and learning opportunities on campus through open classrooms, teaching demonstrations and interactive workshops.
“I’m incredibly excited to work with faculty and departments on developing teaching materials, methods and technologies that are vital and vibrant,” Stanton says. “One of my goals is to create a sense of possibility around teaching at Princeton.”
Stanton received her Ph.D. in literatures in English from Rutgers University in 2003. She began her career in educational development at Princeton, leading the graduate pedagogy program at the McGraw Center. She then moved to Harvard, where she served as a residential college dean and taught courses on postcolonial literature and feminist theory in the interdisciplinary Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality program. She subsequently held administrative positions in academic affairs and faculty affairs at Harvard.
“Having had the opportunity to work closely with Kate over the past seven months, I very much appreciate the tremendous energy and insight she brings to her work,” said Deputy Dean of the College Elizabeth Colagiuri. “She will be a strong advocate for teaching and learning on campus.”
