QEP Summer Institute
QEP Summer Institute
Career Readiness, Experiential Learning, and Meaningful Learning
The 2026 QEP Summer Institute will take place June 15 and 16 on the University of West Georgia campus. This two-day event will bring together faculty and staff for conversations about career readiness, experiential learning, and meaningful learning in higher education.
The institute includes morning sessions for QEP Summer Institute Grant recipients and afternoon plenary sessions open to all faculty and staff. Through keynote and workshop experiences, participants will explore how career-connected learning can be integrated with reflective, human-centered teaching practices.
Featured Speaker
Our invited speaker is Kevin Gannon, Director of the Center for the Advancement of Faculty Excellence and Professor of History at Queens University of Charlotte. Dr. Gannon is the author of Radical Hope: A Teaching Manifesto and co-editor of The Campus Crisis Toolkit: Strategies and Solidarity for the Rest of Us. His writing on history and higher education has appeared in outlets including the Washington Post, CNN, Vox, and The Chronicle of Higher Education.
A nationally recognized speaker on pedagogy, technology, and history, Dr. Gannon will lead a keynote session on Monday afternoon and an interactive workshop on Tuesday afternoon. These sessions will connect directly to UWG’s QEP focus on career readiness, experiential learning, and reflective teaching.
Institute Schedule
The Summer Institute includes focused morning discussions for grant recipients and afternoon plenary sessions open to the broader campus community.
Monday, June 15, 2026
- 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. – Focused discussion with QEP Summer Grant recipients from Dr. Gannon’s book Radical Hope: A Teaching Manifesto
- 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. – Lunch for grant recipients
- 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. – Session I Plenary (open to all): You Can’t Eat Vocation: Balancing Career-Readiness and Meaningful Learning
Tuesday, June 16, 2026
- 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. – Focused discussion with QEP Summer Grant recipients from Dr. Gannon’s book Radical Hope: A Teaching Manifesto
- 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. – Lunch for grant recipients
- 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. – Session II Plenary (open to all): Human/e Teaching
Monday Afternoon Plenary
You Can’t Eat Vocation: Balancing Career-Readiness and Meaningful Learning
One of the most enduring tensions in higher education is the expectation to prepare career-ready students while also sustaining the broader transformational aims of a liberal arts education. This session will challenge participants to move beyond seeing career readiness and meaningful learning as competing goals.
Instead, the session will explore a framework that treats career readiness as the development of habits of mind. Participants will consider research and practical strategies for weaving those habits into courses, assignments, and assessment in ways that support both student growth and long-term professional development.
Tuesday Afternoon Workshop
Human/e Teaching
This interactive workshop widens the conversation beyond career readiness and introduces participants to an exercise in critically reflective teaching. Drawing on guided reflection and discussion, attendees will examine their own teaching and learning stories, identify barriers they have encountered, and reflect on how and why those barriers exist.
The workshop will also invite participants to consider how they might move toward teaching practices that are both human and humane while still supporting sustainability and solidarity in academic life.
About the QEP Summer Institute
The QEP Summer Institute supports the university’s broader work around career readiness and experiential learning by creating space for faculty and staff to reflect on teaching, engage with scholarship, and consider practical approaches for connecting classroom learning to students’ future goals.
Morning sessions are intended for QEP Summer Institute Grant recipients, with an RFP forthcoming, while afternoon plenary sessions are open to all faculty and staff.