The UWI Mona Campus' Annual Departmental Reports 2022_2023

FACULTY OF HUMANITIES AND EDUCATION

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resignations and retirements and the withholding of approvals to refill positions; the declining interest on the part of applicants for our programmes despite their marketability and connections with industry; and other key considerations. A consensus grew on the need to embrace radical change so as to be able to rebrand FHE with a focus on agility and interdisciplinarity. The expectation is that this process will be articulated in more detail in the 2023/2024 academic year.

ACCESS

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT SUPPORT The Faculty hosted its Undergraduate Orientation session for new students at the start of the academic year in hybrid modality, under the theme ‘Ready for an A.C.E. Year: Academics, Community, Excellence’. An additional 50 students joined our programmes in January, and a well-attended on-line orientation was held to facilitate their entry into the institution. Throughout the year, departments engaged their students in workshops focusing on academic development and success. As part of the Faculty’s strategic focus on opportunities for students to develop professional competencies, a Humanities Internship course HUMN3100 was intro- duced. The course requires a minimum two-week work placement and includes career development seminars. It is required for students in the DLIE’s B.A. Writing, Literature and Publishing, but is open also to students in other programmes which do not already include this opportunity and where staff are able to facilitate the supervision of the placement. The DLIE’s expansion into the publishing world has also formed a context for collaborations with publishers from Canada and the UK who facilitated internships, workshops, and public events. The Faculty is also engaged in ongoing efforts to develop minors in Digital Human- ities and in Entrepreneurship in the Humanities, as well as an Associate of Arts degree for entrants on lower matriculation. The constraints imposed by the response to the pandemic having been lifted, sev- eral departments took the opportunity to reintroduce field trips and in-person events. For instance, students in the Linguistics programmes had the opportunity to join a field trip to Moore Town, and organised the 2023 Undergraduate Linguis- tics Research Conference on “60 years of the King’s English”; and CARIMAC’s Journalism students showcased their professional skills by organising the annual World Television Day with a panel on “Local Content, International Value” and the DigiTimes panel on “Journalists, Activists and the People”, while the work of Film Production and Animation students was showcased in a private screening at Palace Cineplex.

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