Teaching and Technology Summit

Sarah Rose Cavanagh is the Senior Associate Director for Teaching and Learning in the Center for Faculty Excellence at Simmons University, where she also teaches in the Psychology Department as an Associate Professor of Practice. She continues collaborations developed in her postdoctoral years with an ongoing appointment as a Research Associate in the Emotion, Brain, and Behavior Laboratory at Tufts University. Before joining Simmons, she was an Associate Professor of psychology and neuroscience (tenured) at Assumption University, where she also served in the D'Amour Center for Teaching Excellence as Associate Director for Grants and Research.

Sarah's research considers the interplay of emotions, motivation, learning, and quality of life. Her most recent research project, funded by the National Science Foundation, convenes a network of scholars to develop teaching practices aimed at greater effectiveness and equity in undergraduate biology education. She is author of The Spark of Learning: Energizing the College Classroom with the Science of Emotion (2016), HIVEMIND (2019), Emotion and Motivation (4e, with Lani Shiota), and upcoming Mind Over Monsters: Supporting Youth Mental Health with Compassionate Challenge (2023). She gives keynote addresses and workshops at a variety of colleges and regional conferences, blogs for Psychology Today, and writes essays for venues like Literary Hub and The Chronicle of Higher Education. She’s also on BlueSky too much, at @SaRoseCav.

Dr. Sarah Vitale received her PhD in Philosophy from Villanova University in May 2014. Her dissertation was entitled “Marx and the Metaphysics of Production." Dr. Vitale’s research focuses on Marx and post-Marxism, especially on the notions of production, creativity, and utopia and their deployment in Marx’s and post-Marxist texts, as well as contemporary feminism and gender studies. She is Co-Editor of the Radical Philosophy Review, the journal of the Radical Philosophy Association, and her publications include “Castoriadis, Marx, and the Critique of Productivism” (Telos 174). 

Vitale teaches Introduction to Philosophy, as well as classes on contemporary philosophy, especially 19th- and 20th-century continental philosophy and critical theory. She is also co-advisor to the Philosophy Club.