Yvonne Gentzler

The essence of human existence, we are taught, is to know thyself. We spend our lives trying to answer age-old questions in an attempt to understand who we are within our families, our professions and the world in which we live. What is my purpose? How do we understand ourselves within the context of socially constructed norms and values? What responsibility does each of us have to humankind and the world in which we live? These types of perennial questions undergird my teaching and research interest in self-exploration and personal journeys.

I began my career exploring moral knowledge and ethical character. I connected with an interdisciplinary profession whose mission has been defined to strengthen individuals and families by focusing on the maturing of self; and enlightened cooperative participation with others in critiquing and forming equitable social goals, and the means for accomplishing them. This path led me to study critical social science and its application through practical reasoning for curricular design. By linking practical reasoning with theories of creativity, I believe it is possible to build the infrastructure, content, and tools necessary to develop inquisitive professionals and leaders who are able to cross disciplinary lines and co-create more equitable social goals.

In 2000 I was chosen as Sigma Phi Epsilon’s first Faculty Fellow, an integral component of the fraternity’s Residential Learning Community (RLC). The RLC concept, which integrates academic learning and community living, began at Oxford and Cambridge Universities in England and was later adopted in the United States by Yale and Harvard. After studying the experiences of Rhodes Scholar recipients, researchers concluded that students are more successful when partnered with a professor who interacts with them outside of the classroom.  With more than ten years of active engagement with Sigma Phi Epsilon, my research explores the life worlds of fraternity men through an auto-ethnographic lens as a way to interpret their culture and simultaneously assist them in understanding themselves.

Awards

• 2007: National Outstanding Family and Consumer Sciences Teacher Educator, American Association Family and Consumer Sciences, VA and Goodheart-Willcox, IL.
• 2006: Sigma Phi Epsilon Educational Foundation Fellow, Sigma Phi Epsilon, Richmond, VA
• 2006: Kappa Omicron Nu Critical Science Research Fellow, Kappa Omicron Nu, East Lansing, MI
• 1994: Innovation in Advancing Women’s Leadership Award, Women’s Leadership Institute, Wells College, NY
• 1994: Curriculum Transformation Project, Project Participant, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
• 1992: Lilly Center for Teaching Excellence, Teaching Fellow, University of Maryland, College Park, MD

Courses Taught

• CI 1902 A Journey of Self-Discovery: Insight into the Male Experience
• CI 5900 Special Topics: Innovation and Change in Educational Arenas
• CI 8902 Family, Youth and Community in Social, Political, and Economics Contexts
• CI 8904 Families, Youth, Communities, and Education: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives