Associate Director and Associate Professor

Photo by: Christian Hommel Photography

Deandra Little joined the Teaching Resource Center faculty in August 2003. A graduate of Samford University (B.A., English) with a Ph.D. in English from Vanderbilt University, Deandra also regularly teaches courses on American literature. Her teaching interests focus on 19th- and 20th-century US literature & culture, specifically representations of science & technology and intersections of science, gender & identity in the 19th-century and autobiographical writings by 20th-century women writers.

As an Associate Director, Deandra administers the Professors as Writers Program and co-administers the Tomorrow’s Professor Today Program and edits the TRC newsletter, Teaching Concerns. Other responsibilities include presenting and conducting workshops, consulting individually with faculty and graduate students about teaching & learning and a variety of other tasks designed to enhance UVa’s teaching mission.

Her educational development research focuses on effective mentoring & coaching, graduate student professional development, assessing and responding to student writing, and teaching with images & visualizations across the curriculum. She has presented on these topics in a number of venues, including as co-facilitator of NEH/American History Project summer institutes, Learning to Look: Teaching with Images in the Humanities.

Deandra's CV (updated: 10/22/12)

Recent Publications

• Little, D. & D.A. Green (2012) Betwixt and between? Academic developers in the margins. International Journal for Academic Development, Special Issue: Political Geographies in Academic Development. 17:3, 203-215.
• Green, D.A. & D. Little. (2011) Academic Development on the Margins. Studies in Higher Education. Advance Online Publication. DOI:10.1080/03075079.2011.583640
• Little, D. & Palmer, M. (2012). Training Instructional Consultants to Use a Coaching Framework. In K. T. Brinko (Ed). Practically Speaking: A Sourcebook for Instructional Consultants in Higher Education. Stillwater, OK:
• New Forums Press. Little, D. & Palmer, M. (2011). A Coaching-based Framework for Individual Consultations. In J. Miller & J. Groccia (Eds.), To Improve the Academy: Resources for Faculty, Instructional and Organizational Development. Vol 29.
• Little, D., Felten, P. & Berry, C. (2010, Spring). Liberal education in a Visual World. Liberal Education. 96(2). Association of American Colleges & Universities.
• Little, D. & Felten, P. (2010) Seeing is Believing: Visual Teaching and Learning. NEA Higher Education Advocate: Thriving in Academe, 28(1), 5-8.
• Felten, P., Little, D. & Pingree, A. (2004). Foucault and the Practice of Educational Development: Power and Surveillance in Individual Consultations. In C. Wehlburg & S. Chadwick-Blossey (Eds.), To Improve the Academy: Resources for Faculty, Instructional and Organizational Development. Vol 22: 173-188.

TRC Publications

• “Encouraging Scholarly Practice for Web-Savvy Students.” Teaching Concerns: a newsletter for faculty and teaching assistants, Spring 2007
• “Grading with Rubrics: Developing a Fair and Efficient Assessment Tool.” Teaching Concerns, Fall 2006
• Teaching a Diverse Student Body: Practical Strategies for Enhancing Our Students’ Learning. (TRC Handbook, 2nd edition), June 2004

Recent Workshops and Presentations

Teaching with Images

• Learning and Looking: Visual literacy across the Disciplines (2009, with P. Felten and C. Berry), a Friday Live! On-line multimedia workshop for the Teaching, Learning and Technology Group (TLT Group, description and transcript of session on http://www.tltgroup.org/tlt-swg/fridays.htm).
• Looking for Visual Literacy in Liberal Education (2009, with P. Felten and C. Berry) American Association of Colleges &University’s (AAC&U) Annual Meeting
• Teaching with Images to Promote Visual Literacy (2007, with C. Berry) 27th International Lilly Conference on College Teaching
• Powerful Images and Powerful Learning: Using Images to Promote Student Learning. (2006, with P. Felten and C. Berry) Lily South Conference on College and University Teaching
• Learning to Look: Teaching Humanities with Visual Images and New Media. (2003-4, with P. Felten and C. Berry) Regional co-leader, National Endowment for the Humanities & American Social History Project faculty seminar

Other Topics

• Promoting Learning through Classroom Discussion
• Designing Rubrics for Teaching, Grading, and Assessment (departmental & university-wide)
• Grading and Assessing Student Writing
• Inclusive teaching and the multicultural classroom
• Teaching Portfolio and Reflective Teaching Statements (with varying co-presenters)
• Effective Course Design; Effective Course Design for Community Engagement Courses (with varying co-presenters)

Selected Conference Presentations

• Cohen, P., Felten, P., Lee, V., Little, D. & Reder, M. (2010, January) Sustaining and Championing Faculty Development—In Good Times & Bad. American Association of Colleges &University’s (AAC&U) Annual Meeting.
• Plank, K & Little, D. (2009, October) Changing Lenses: What Do the Humanities Offer Educational Development? Workshop presented at 34th Annual Professional & Organizational Development (POD) Network Conference
• Little, D and Bach, D. (2008) Supporting Mid-career Women and Minority Faculty. POD Network Conference.
• Palmer, M., Little, D. & Cvijectic, N. (2008) Tomorrow’s Professor Today: A Flexible Faculty Preparation Program. Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning Forum, University of Wisconsin, poster session
• Little, D. & Palmer, M. (2007) With Mindful Purpose: Coaching as a Strategy for Teaching Consultations. (Pre-conference half-day workshop.) POD Network Conference.