Dr. Debbie Van Camp

Biography

My pedagogical philosophy is always focused on helping students to "find a way into" seemingly difficult or intimidating materials. This, I believe, starts with fostering an environment of intellectual curiosity and excitement for learning. At the same time, it involves exposing students to diverse viewpoints and asking them to critically evaluate their own. A fundamental tenet of my approach to teaching that while the content of a given class is important, more important are the transferable skills reflective of a liberal arts education and so I always try to emphasize the development of critical reading and writing skills as well as oral and written argumentative skills.

Research Interest

My research is broadly focused on issues of identity. This has included a consideration of mental illness as a stigmatized identity, the race-related reasons for Black students' college choice and the consequences of this important life choice for students' racial identity development, the interaction of race and sexual identity and how this intersection is relevant for considerations of prejudice, and the structure and consequences of religious identity and in particular how this relates to morality. In addition I undertake research concerning the scholarship of teaching and learning.