Kathryn Pope, MFA: Program Director/Writing Instructor

Kathryn completed her graduate work in Antioch University’s MFA program. She started teaching at both Antioch and Santa Monica College in 2004, covering a range of writing and English classes, including grammar, composition and research, literature, and creative writing. She also tutored at Antioch’s writing center. As a teacher, Kathryn’s work has focused on helping students see writing as a process — as a way of thinking, rather than a set of rules to follow. She believes that writing is a way for students to find their voices, to add their opinions and arguments to the fray — and ultimately, to be empowered to use their voices (and the authority that comes with them) to act in the world. Kathryn came to the Bridge Program as director in 2006. Each year, she watches as students work through philosophy, literary, writing, and art history texts and begin to knit together their own philosophies, one assignment at a time — and each year she is moved by students’ accomplishments, both in and outside the classroom.

David Tripp, Ph.D.: Founding Director/ Philosophy Instructor

Dr. Tripp teaches in the Liberal Studies program at Antioch University Los Angeles.  Starting as an adjunct faculty member there in 1989, he accepted a core faculty position in 1993, served as the chair of the Bachelor of Arts program from 1998-2002, and also was the founding director of the CHE program, which has now become The Bridge Program.  Dr. Tripp took his doctorate in Social Ethics at the University of Southern California and has taught a wide range of related courses at Antioch-most recently completing a yearlong series of public lectures on Postmodern Ethics (2003-2004).  His work focuses primarily on questions of moral and political agency, and most specifically on the question of how to engender and sustain resistance to oppression and injustice.

Given these interests Dr. Tripp was delighted when, in September of 1999, Antioch University’s President asked him to design and provide leadership for an innovative new program that would bring a course in the humanities to the poor and working poor of Los Angeles. Working closely with Blair Smith (former Administrative Director of CHE), Dr. Tripp developed the Community Humanities Education (CHE) program. The program partnered with local community agencies to offer a nine month long interdisciplinary course in Art History, Literature, Philosophy and the Writing Arts. CHE provided a critical perspective on the Western tradition of the humanities, and the course sought to encourage the poor and working poor to develop critical thinking skills while claiming their own voices and coming to participate more fully in public life. CHE courses, including tuition, books, supplies, childcare, and transportation, like Bridge courses, were provided free of charge.

Dr. Tripp is very pleased to continue the work he began as Founding Director of CHE through The Bridge Program, both as a teacher and as a member of The Bridge Program Advisory Board.

 

 

Rosa Garza-Mourino, MA: Literature Instructor

In my experience, the Bridge Program comprises a rich range of pedagogical roles that defy all conventional assumptions of knowledge as power. The issue of who is learning what from whom, and how, remains a moving target for nine months. On my official ten week end, I deal with students who bring to the classroom life experiences that often pair and directly resonate with those contained in course readings. Fueled by their presence, each session becomes a real time blurring of the arbitrary distinction between literature and popular culture. Then I rely on interns who are in fact students formally exposed for the first time to the dual role of teachers and learners, and are uniquely positioned to grasp and report the nuances of classroom dynamics that otherwise may go unnoticed in large class settings. Finally I am in contact with fellow instructors whose classroom experiences often affect the design and scope of my own weekly lessons. Who is teaching and learning here, one wonders.

 

Justin Cole, MFA: Art History Instructor

Justin’s statement will be coming soon.

 

Bridge Program Interns

Each year, students in Antioch University Los Angeles’s Bachelor of Arts Program work as interns in the Bridge classroom. Interns work one-on-one with Bridge students each night after class, as well as during class discussions and activities. Interns also study critical pedagogy and participate in roundtable discussions each quarter to discuss the role of the teacher in society and best practices for teaching.

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