Chesapeake Semester
Faculty & Staff
A diverse group of 20 Washington College faculty, spread evenly across the divisions, and 8 staff members will participate in the Chesapeake Semester. All courses in the program will be team taught to ensure that a variety of viewpoints and disciplines are represented. Faculty participation will vary, with some giving one or two lectures in their area of specialization and others serving as the primary instructor for a course.
Dr. John L. Seidel will serve as the Chesapeake Semester Director, assisted in logistics by Center for Environment & Society Program Manager Michael Hardesty and other CES staff. Dr. Donald Munson, Chair of the Chesapeake Regional Studies Program and the McLain Program in Environmental Studies, will provide overall program counsel and help to shape the natural sciences course. Professors Donald McColl and Sean Meehan will coordinate the humanities course, while Prof. Seidel will coordinate the social sciences course and integration course.
Faculty involvement will vary from semester to semester, but the program will draw on the talents of the following Washington College and staff.
Natural Sciences
Humanities
Social Sciences
Staff/WC Adjuncts
Partnerships
Over the semester you will have the opportunity to develop relationships and connections with professionals in any number of fields. You will be more than "a student on a field trip" when you participate in the Chesapeake Semester. You will be viewed and treated as a young professional and will be expected to engage your professors, lecturers, guides, and speakers in the same way that they will be engaging you. If you are especially interested in a specific field or the work of a certain professor, scientist, artist, musician, advocate, or waterman, you should look upon the Chesapeake Semester as a unique opportunity to make connections. We hope you will utilize these connections during your undergraduate career, during graduate school, and at the beginning of your professional careers. An abbreviated list of is provided below:
- Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum
- Chesapeake Bay Commission
- Chesapeake Bay Foundation
- Chesapeake Bay Trust
- Maryland Departments of Natural Resources and Environment
- Maryland Sea Grant
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
- University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science
This list only touches on the breadth of the contacts you will make and does not include individual artists, politicians, musicians, lobbyists, farmers, and watermen who you will meet.