Brian Baldi

I love teaching, and I love being able to organize my career around helping others with their teaching. I lead the Lilly Fellowship for Teaching Excellence, conduct midterm assessments and teaching consultations, co-founded the Contemplative Pedagogy Working Group, and co-facilitate workshops on topics such as: assignment design, getting students to engage with course readings, wellbeing for teachers, addressing student evaluations, course design, and more. I was a co-PI on both the Mellon Mutual Mentoring Grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and a Teaching and Learning Grant from the Center for the Contemplative Mind in Society. I also served as co-chair of the University Writing Committee.

I have taught literature and writing at both UMass Amherst and Marlboro College, and currently teach first-year seminars, including:

FYS191: Deep Looking: Reading Images, Reading Texts, Reading Ourselves

FYS191: Particular Potency: Contemporary Short Stories

FYS191: The Literature of Food

FYS197: Literatures of Some Futures

In total, I have been the instructor of record for 24 sections of 12 different college-level courses. Did I mention I love teaching?

My fiction, nonfiction, and poetry have been published in the AWP Writer’s Chronicle, The Massachusetts Review, ZYZZYVA, Fairy Tale Review, Denver Quarterly, "Brothers and Beasts: An Anthology of Men on Fairy Tales" (Wayne State University Press), "Monsters: A Collection of Literary Sightings," (Pressgang), and "Best of the Web 2010" (DZANC Books). I've also published a chapter on faculty scholarly writing programming in "Working with Faculty Writers" (Utah State University Press), and an article, “Mutual Mentoring for Early-Career and Underrepresented Faculty: Model, Research, and Practice," in Innovative Higher Education.

I hold a Bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications from the University of California Berkeley, a Master’s of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and a Master's in Library Science from Simmons College.

New and Selected Conference Presentations

Baldi, B., et al. (2023). "Inspiring and supporting contemplative pedagogy communities: A range of approaches." Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Education 2023 Conference, Pittsburgh, PA. November.

Baldi, B. and Petitti, R. (2021). “Meaningful course design to increase student engagement with course readings of enticing students to read,” The Teaching Professor Conference (Virtual Session), New Orleans, LA, June.

Baldi, B. and Petitti, R. (2020). “The subtle art of enticing students to read,” Sunshine State Teaching and Learning Conference, Daytona Beach, FL, January.

Baldi, B. and Helmer, K. (2019). “Looking inward and outward: Designing inclusive, outward-facing faculty learning communities,” Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Education 2019 Conference, Pittsburgh, PA. November.

Baldi, B., Cannon, J., Guhanarayan, G., Rios, M., Berquist, S., James, T. (2019). “Dreaming into being: Building heartful communities on campus,” Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education Conference, UMass Amherst, November.

Baldi, B. (2019). “Supporting student transitions and deep learning through contemplative practices," Sunshine State Teaching and Learning Conference, Daytona, FL, January.

Baldi, B. (2018). “Savoring thought: Using contemplation to amplify active learning in writing classes,” 17th Annual CCTL Conference on Teaching and Learning, Niagra University, January.

Lisi, B. and Baldi, B. (2018). “Flexible teaching reflection: Asynchronous peer coaching for better course alignment,” 17th Annual CCTL Conference on Teaching and Learning, Niagra University, January.

Pader, E., Baldi, B., Botelho, M.J., Krupczyski, J. (2016). “Engagement, identity, love, & transformation: Contemplative inquiry and critical teaching,” Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education Conference, UMass Amherst, October.