Friday, September 25th
Featured Plenary Speaker

Dr. Kevin Gannon

Director, Center for the Advancement of Faculty Excellence (CAFÉ)
Queens University, Charlotte

Making Higher Education Human/e

A list of all the difficulties we face in higher education would occupy the entire conference program, and we are all well aware of—and living through—them anyway. But the list of paths out of this morass is much shorter. Merely acknowledging the fact we occupy a new landscape is not enough; we need actual, tangible alternatives. And that’s where liberal and general studies comes in. This talk will offer strategies grounded in the science of learning and the history of educational technologies that we might use not just for defending, but expanding, our curricular and institutional presence. In doing so, we’ll have the opportunity (obligation?) to create compelling models of a higher education that is both humane and eminently human.

Kevin Gannon is Director of the Center for the Advancement of Faculty Excellence and Professor of History at Queens University in Charlotte, in North Carolina. After an over 20-year faculty career, serving as a program coordinator and department chair along the way, he moved into faculty development full-time in 2014. Even in an administrative role, Kevin continues to work with first-year students (a particular passion of his) by teaching sections of Queens’ new student seminar course, the Queens Roadmap, every fall semester.

The CAFÉ mission is professional development for faculty and academic staff throughout all of the phases of the life of their position,” Gannon said. “to be successful, we need to consider every aspect of faculty life – teaching and learning, scholarly activity, research, and service to the university, and make sure we’re providing effective support in all of those areas.”

Kevin is the author of Radical Hope: A Teaching Manifesto (West Virginia University Press, 2020), and the co-editor of The Campus Crisis Toolkit: Strategy and Solidarity for the Rest of Us (SUNY Press, 2026). His writing has also appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education (where he has been a regular contributor), Vox, CNN, and The Washington Post.

Learn More about Dr. Gannon at his website, The Tattooed Professor   History, Teaching, and Technology with a Custom Paint Job

Saturday, September 26th
Leadership Plenary

We are the Leaders We Have Been Waiting For

Higher education is experiencing a leadership crisis: rapid turnover at the top; erosion of faculty governance; intrusive legislatures and boards; administrative ‘bloat;’ and debates over campus speech are just a few of the many indicators. What can those of us charged with leading General Education and Liberal Studies programs do about it? In this plenary, we propose replacing corporate, leader-centered models of leadership with egalitarian, group-centered approaches that are better suited to higher education. Join us to explore crucial principles and practices intended to help you find solidarity and build community on your campus and across the AGLS network.

Note:  this is an expansion of previous workshops offered at AGLS on leadership. 

This page updated June 24, 2026