Inside out pink umbrella on a blue background
brain in mortar board hat
White broken chalk on a black background

Scholarship of teaching and learning…with a side of snark.

Snafu Edu

Teaching and Learning When Things Go Wrong in the College Classroom

Published in the University of Oklahoma Press series Teaching, Engaging, and Thriving in Higher Education

  • In Snafu Edu Jessamyn Neuhaus boldly foregrounds a reality often downplayed in college teaching advice: no matter how skilled, caring, and well-prepared instructors are, or how motivated and engaged learners are, sometimes things go wrong. The word “snafu” is a noun, a verb, and an acronym, and Neuhaus argues that in all senses it accurately describes the ways teaching and learning predictably and persistently get fouled up in higher ed. In Snafu Edu, she offers evidence-based insights into why these snafus happen, and practical, actionable strategies for recognizing, responding to, repairing, and reducing them.

    Neuhaus identifies five major reasons for both systemic as well as individual teaching and learning snafus: inequity, disconnection, distrust, failure, and fear. She shows that understanding how these five things impact teaching and learning can help educators more clearly perceive snafus, and cultivate awareness of what specific responses will be effective in their own unique teaching context when snafus occur. Throughout the book, Neuhaus positions these practices as part of a problem-solving approach that she terms STIR–stop, think, identify, and repair. Neuhaus also details proactive course design principles and pedagogical practices to reduce major teaching and learning snafus by increasing equity, building connections, fostering trust, enabling success, and increasing agency for both educators as well as for students.

    Neuhaus asserts that beyond “classroom management” or “classroom conflict resolution,” we must more widely and deliberately recognize that in any teaching and learning situation, things will sometimes go wrong. The requirements of learning, the impact of entrenched institutional structures and systemic injustices, the complexities of human interactions, and the weight of individual and collective histories means that there will always be snafus. However, like a natural disaster preparedness kit in the basement or a zombie apocalypse bug-out bag hidden under the bed, educators can prepare a “go-bag” of insights, strategies, and practices to have at the ready when things go sideways. 

    Snafu Edu is an insightful, equity-minded, highly readable, and deeply honest book. Written in Neuhaus’s engaging signature style, it’s witty, lucid, and extensively researched, filled with pragmatic and empowering advice for real-life teaching and learning.

  • Open Access Bibliography

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  • Jessamyn Neuhaus does it again—a witty, accessible, thoughtful book on teaching that meets educators where they are … namely, trying to avoid any and all teaching snafus and feeling ashamed when they (inevitably) show up anyway. By identifying a strategy (STIR), a common set of ways that things can go wrong (inequity, disconnection, distrust, failure, and fear), and recurring structural issues that complicate teaching (including intersectional identities, the certainty of human error, and the damaging myth of the Super Teacher), Snafu Edu is the trusted BFF we all need when things go wrong. It won’t shame you and won’t blame you, but the book will give you ways to calm your jangled nerves and move forward productively.

    Elizabeth Norell, author of The Present Professor: Authenticity and Transformational Teaching

  • Snafu Edu at once models and calls for humility, courage, and action in working to address the ways in which inequity, disconnection, distrust, failure, and fear can undermine both teachers and learners. Through a narrative infused with humor as well as deep seriousness, Jessamyn Neuhaus offers recommendations, not prescriptions, for leaning into the demanding and essential work of striving for equity, connection, trust, productive struggle, and agency.

    Alison Cook-Sather, author of Co-creating Equitable Teaching and Learning: Structuring Student Voice into Higher Education

  • In Snafu Edu, Jessamyn Neuhaus reminds us that teaching and learning are human experiences in which things can and will go wrong. This book addresses the imperfect realities of teaching and learning with honesty, humor, and deep insight. Snafu Edu leans into the challenges, missteps, and learning opportunities that we all encounter and demonstrates how these moments can strengthen our practice and build more authentic connections with students. For each of the common challenges addressed in the book, Dr. Neuhaus suggests practical remedies when they occur as well as proactive strategies for addressing these challenges before they arise.

    John Kane, Director, SUNY Oswego Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching

Picture a Professor

Interrupting Biases about Faculty and Increasing Student Learning

A photo of the book Picture a Professor; it is light green like a chalkboard, and the title is written in chalk-like font, and there is a photo of a broken and crumbled pink stick of chalk

  • Picture a Professor: Interrupting Biases about Faculty and Increasing Student Learning is a multidisciplinary collection of evidence-based insights and intersectional teaching strategies crafted by and for college instructors who inspire transformative student learning while challenging stereotypes about what a professor “looks like.” Published in the groundbreaking West Virginia University Press series, Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.

    Read more at https://www.pictureaprofessor.com/about

  • For a bonus bibliography and my open-access chapter “Figuring Out Student Feedback on Teaching: Strategies for Reducing Potential Personal and Professional Harm to Faculty," visit https://pictureaprofessor.com

  • Purchase Picture a Professor from West Virginia University Press

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  • “Raising awareness of challenges diverse instructors can face when teaching in higher ed classrooms and sharing empowering and tested solutions are both much needed. Picture a Professor does both and more. Grounded in the experiences of scholars teaching in the classroom, the book is a valuable resource for instructors, administrators, those responsible for promotion and tenure decisions, and educational developers partnering with a diverse faculty. Much praise to Jessamyn Neuhaus and chapter authors for addressing the often undiscussed truth that not all instructors who teach are afforded the same privileges.”

    Tracie Marcella Addy, coauthor of What Inclusive Instructors Do: Principles and Practices for Excellence in College Teaching

  • “In this collection, the authors of Picture a Professor weave scholarship, personal narratives, and practical teaching ideas into an intersectional call to action that, when reflectively implemented, will positively transform our college classrooms for years to come.”

    Travis Thurston, coeditor of Resilient Pedagogy: Practical Teaching Strategies to Overcome Distance, Disruption, and Distraction

Geeky Pedagogy

A Guide for Intellectuals, Introverts, and Nerds Who Want to Be Effective Teachers

  • Geeky Pedagogy is a witty and critically reflective narrative guide to effective teaching practices written for super-smart intellectuals, introverts, nerds, wonks, and geeks in academia who want to translate their scholarly expertise into student learning. Published in the groundbreaking West Virginia University Press series, Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. 

    For a complete description, visit https://geekypedagogy.com/about-geeky-pedagogy

  • For additional bibliographies for each chapter, visit https://geekypedagogy.com/bibliographies

  • Purchase Geeky Pedagogy from West Virginia University Press

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  • “Reading this book felt like I was talking about teaching with my smartest, most well-read, and funniest friend.”

    James M. Lang, author of Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning

  • “Geeky Pedagogy essentially helps one ask and answer the paired questions of ‘Who am I?,’ and knowing that, ‘How should I teach?’ Neuhaus offers a lens through which to ask and answer these questions plus much much more. It’s a wonderful tool for reflection, even for experienced instructors.”

    John Warner, author of The Writer’s Practice and Why They Can't Write

  • “Every college professor should read this book. It is useful, accessible, lively, and humorous. It is not ideological or pedantic but is instead a practical guide to becoming a better professor for those of us who never desired to read a book about pedagogy.”

    David Arnold, Columbia Basin College

 History Monographs

  • An analysis of how since the end of the 19th-century advertising agencies and their housework product clients utilized a remarkably consistent depiction of housewives and housework, illustrating that that although Second Wave feminism successfully called into question the housewife stereotype, homemaking has remained an American feminine ideal.

    Purchase an online copy from publisher Palgrave Macmillan (Springer)

    "This deeply researched analysis makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of how the cultural figure of the housewife in modern American advertising continues to perform the same function as the symbol did at the end of the 1800s, despite the widespread critique of the 1970s."

    - Juliann Sivulka, professor of American Studies, Waseda University and author of Ad Women: How They Impact What We Need, Want, and Buy

  • From the first edition of The Fannie Farmer Cookbook to the latest works by today's celebrity chefs, cookbooks reflect more than just passing culinary fads. As historical artifacts, they offer a unique perspective on the cultures that produced them. In Manly Meals and Mom's Home Cooking, Jessamyn Neuhaus offers a perceptive and piquant analysis of the tone and content of American cookbooks published between the 1790s and the 1960s, adroitly uncovering the cultural assumptions and anxieties—particularly about women and domesticity—they contain.

    Read the full description of the book and purchase a copy from publisher Johns Hopkins University Press

    "This detailed analysis of the gendered nature of American cookbooks surveys more cookbooks than any other work I'm aware of. The clear and consistent thesis is that these cookbooks reflect and reinforce a long-standing ideology of domesticity that situates women as the primary cooks, caretakers, and nurturers of the idealized nuclear family. With sound scholarship and a focus on prescriptive food literature, Manly Meals makes an original and useful contribution to our understanding of how gender roles are institutionalized and perpetuated."

    — Warren Belasco, senior editor of The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink