Unconventional Wisdom: Learning, Teaching, and Campus Life

Peter Magolda, professor of educational leadership at Miami University and a well-known scholar in the field of student affairs, will give the Scholars' Convocation at 11 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 15, in Joe Rosenfield '25 Center, Room 101.

The lecture, titled "Unconventional Wisdom About Learning, Teaching and Campus Life," is free and open to the public.

Magolda's scholarship focuses on ethnographic studies of college subcultures and critical issues in qualitative research on campus. He teaches courses on educational anthropology in higher education, cultural studies, qualitative research, and program evaluation. He holds a bachelor's degree in psychology from LaSalle College, a master's degree in counseling psychology from Ohio State University, and a doctorate in higher education administration from Indiana University.

He has written and edited numerous works. His most recent book is titled The Lives of Campus Custodians: Insights into Corporatization and Civic Disengagement in the Academy. It explores the lives and working conditions of a group of individuals who are usually rendered invisible on college campuses — the custodians who daily clean the offices, residence halls, bathrooms and public spaces. In doing so it also reveals universities’ equally invisible practices that frequently contradict their espoused values of inclusion and equity, and their profession that those on the margins are important members of the campus community.

Grinnell College welcomes the participation of people with disabilities. Room 101 in the Rosenfield Center is equipped with an induction hearing loop system, which enables individuals with hearing aids set to T-Coil to hear the program. Accommodation requests may be made to Conference Operations, 641-269-3235.