Join us for session three of the Brave Conversations in SoTL Speaker Series with Peter Felten, Cherie Woolmer, Naureen Mumtaz and J Overholser: May 7, 2026
AnneMarie Dorland
Dear colleagues,
Please join us as we host the last session of Brave Conversations in Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Season Three on May 7th, 2026. For this third event in our online series, Dr. Cherie Woolmer will host a conversation with Dr. Peter Felten, Dr. Naureen Mumtaz and J Overholser to explore what it means to revisit and rethink “risk” in SoTL.
Brave Conversations - Season 3, Session 3: Revisiting and Rethinking “Risk” in SoTL
May 7, 2026 (9:00 AM - 10:30 AM MT)
Dr. Peter Felten (Centre for Engaged Learning, Elon University) Dr. Naureen Mumtaz (Mount Royal University) J Overholser (University of Calgary).
(Facilitated by Dr. Cherie Woolmer)
In what ways can we think about risk beyond the usual language of innovation and courage? How might risk intersect with ideas of failure, vulnerability, or uncertainty? Can some colleagues or students take greater risks than others? Who is afforded safety, protection, or grace — and who is not? What emerges when we take an intersectional lens to the people who engage in SoTL?
Reflecting on issues raised in previous sessions, our speakers will invite participants to interrogate the uneven terrain of risk and examine how positionality shapes what is possible — and what is not — within SoTL inquiry.
Register now to receive the Zoom link for this online session!
What is Brave Conversations in SoTL? This series is a collaboration between the Mokakiiks Centre for SoTL at Mount Royal University and the University of Calgary's Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning, where we bring together an international slate of scholars to discuss ideas at SoTL's edges. This season explores the many ways that risk can be understood, taken up, and experienced by those engaging in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL).
Risk-taking is often framed in celebratory terms — entrepreneurial, innovative, bold. While this can be a positive rendering, we want to trouble that familiar narrative. What might open up if we invited our community to think about risk in more pluralistic, more nuanced ways? How might our understanding of risk-taking, innovation, and failure in SoTL change when we look through an intersectional lens? What if we centred the lived experiences of those for whom “taking a risk” is not an abstract intellectual exercise, but something that carries real professional, personal, or emotional stakes?
