Bryan Port serves as the Director for the Center for Government and Civic Service at Austin Community College.

Bryan and his team bring civic engagement to life in new and innovative ways, and I invite you to learn about what they offer both to ACC’s students and the broader Austin community.

My guests today are Arun John, Kelly Greenwood, Grant Potts and Ted Hadzi-Antich, and they’ll be talking about their work on the Character Education Initiative at Austin Community College. I think this work has the potential for profound impact on the way that we think about both teaching and learning, and invite you to imagine the possibilities along with us.

This episode features discussion of Claire Elise Katz' "Stolen Valor: How the Humanities '@ Work' Are Hidden in Plain Sight".

• (00:00:00) - Austin Community Conversations: The Character Education Initiative
• (00:02:42) - Interview with Ted Hatziancic and Grant Potts
• (00:03:28) - Teaching at ACC: A Motley Crue
• (00:07:19) - The Mission of Character Education at ACC
• (00:18:30) - Post-Bacc MS in Technology
• (00:19:10) - Philosophy of Character and Virtue
• (00:22:13) - Virtues of Learning Math
• (00:24:09) - The moralization of higher education
• (00:28:26) - Questions about human flourishing in higher education
• (00:37:41) - The value of liberal arts education
• (00:44:46) - Enable Faculty: Character Education
• (00:52:59) - Faculty on the Character Education Initiative
• (01:01:42) - What Would You Want Your Community College Students to Know?
• (01:02:13) - The Future of Character Education
• (01:06:32) - The College Community Initiative

Ted Hadzi-Antich is a government professor and one of the founders of the Great Questions Seminar at ACC. Here you’ll learn about how the Seminar focuses on the fundamental elements of close readings of source texts, open ended discussion, and classroom community. By the end, I think you’ll find it easy to see why this pedagogy has captured the attention of media outlets ranging from the New York Times to the Chronicle of Higher Education, along with major four-year universities who have been surprised and inspired by what our faculty and students achieve together.

• (00:00:00) - Austin Community Conversations
• (00:02:13) - Teaching at ACC: The First Year
• (00:06:33) - In the Elevator With Students
• (00:08:07) - The Importance of Feeling Like An Impersonator
• (00:10:52) - The Great Questions Seminar
• (00:16:06) - The Character Education of Community Colleges
• (00:18:55) - The Great Questions Seminar
• (00:26:23) - A Day in the Life: The Good Life
• (00:29:01) - A Sense of Agency in College
• (00:31:21) - Community Colleges: The Career-Ready Student
• (00:37:43) - The mission of the student success class
• (00:40:19) - Community Colleges: The Diversity of Students
• (00:47:29) - Great Questions: The Pedagogical Model
• (00:53:00) - The Great Questions Program at Austin Community College

Dr. Grant H. Potts serves as Dean of Curriculum Management at Austin Community College,, overseeing award plans and scheduling in accordance with state and federal reporting requirements. He is a Professor of Philosophy, former Chair of the Philosophy, Religion, and Humanities department, and has served in various leadership roles at ACC and in national organizations dedicated to the study of religion and to community college teaching and learning.

We discuss his approach to teaching, the value of religious studies as a preparation for a surprising range of personal and professional endeavors, and the cultivation of intellectual virtues as a goal for liberal arts education.

• (00:00:00) - Community Conversations
• (00:01:21) - What's in It for a College Student?
• (00:03:16) - Interim Dean Potts on the Different Roles
• (00:11:15) - Pushing the boundaries of higher education
• (00:18:13) - Denison College Student Experience
• (00:25:41) - Philosophy and curriculum management
• (00:29:31) - The Way Philosophy Prepared Me for Work
• (00:34:21) - How does religion help me understand the world?
• (00:41:57) - Discussing the Stakes of Religion
• (00:48:31) - Existential terror in philosophy
• (00:53:31) - The Limits of Knowledge in the Meno
• (00:59:24) - Exploring the Religion of Film
• (01:05:45) - The relationship between journal and classroom learning

Matty Martinez-Mandell serves as coordinator for the Peace and Conflict Studies Center at Austin Community College. We discuss the role that the center plays in promoting peaceful resolutions to conflicts of all kinds, the ways in which Matty’s distinctive academic background informs their work, and a few upcoming center events that merit your consideration.

• (00:00:00) - Austin Community Conversations
• (00:02:14) - Maddie Martinez Mandel Discusses the Center's Role
• (00:05:17) - What is Peace Tech? (
• (00:13:01) - The Peace and Conflict Studies Program at Austin Community College
• (00:17:46) - The PAC Center's programming
• (00:26:05) - How to Have Difficult Conversations
• (00:34:58) - The Difficult Conversations Series

Through poetry and prose, language becomes a vehicle for connecting readers directly with the thoughts, beliefs and lived experiences of authors.

My guest today is Prudence Arceneaux, who guides students as Chair of the Creative Writing Department at Austin Community College. In addition to teaching Creative Writing courses, Prudence directs ACC’s literary magazine, The Rio Review, as well as the annual Balcones Literary Prize. She is also an accomplished poet in her own right, having published several volumes including Proprioception, recently released through the Texas Review Press.

Our discussion addresses her academic journey, the risks and rewards of participating in a community of writers, and the role of creativity both within and outside of her discipline.

• (00:00:00) - Community Conversations
• (00:02:07) - Prudence Arsenault on Her Role as an Instructor
• (00:04:40) - When You Get To Know Your Students
• (00:06:40) - Exploring Your Specific Academic Pathway
• (00:08:36) - The Role of Creativity in Teaching
• (00:12:47) - The Division Between Art and Creativity
• (00:19:03) - Writing and the Creative Process
• (00:24:46) - How to Get Out of Math Class
• (00:30:42) - How to Get Out of the Trap of 'Writing'
• (00:32:15) - Why Poetry Is So Scary
• (00:36:27) - The Voices of Non-Traditional Poets
• (00:41:22) - A Poem for a Friend
• (00:42:03) - What should I expect to be in for if I attend a reading
• (00:46:56) - The Future of Censorship
• (00:48:52) - A message about the Rio Review

Matt Kliewer is a Humanities instructor at Austin Community College and a scholar in the field of Native American and global Indigenous literature, film and media. Matt and I will lead a discussion following a screening of the Jim Jarmusch film Dead Man at the Austin Film Society’s cinema on November 13 at 7pm. Here, we take the opportunity to discuss his field and work, and to see what it looks like in real time by discussing a different film–2013’s Rhymes for Young Ghouls, written and directed by Jeff Barnaby. The film discussion comprises the second half of this interview, and delves into many of its plot points–spoilers lie ahead.

• (00:00:00) - Austin Community Conversations
• (00:01:07) - Dead Man: Matt Cleaver
• (00:02:30) - A Conversation With Jim Jarmusch on Deadman
• (00:04:36) - Faculty in the Humanities Q&A
• (00:07:34) - How to Talk to Students About Humanities
• (00:09:59) - Talking about literature with high school students in 2025
• (00:11:56) - On the Future of Young Adult Literature
• (00:14:20) - What would a humanities survey course look like?
• (00:17:14) - What It Means to Pursue Native American Studies
• (00:23:15) - The Film Review
• (00:24:17) - Rhymes for Young Ghouls Review
• (00:26:39) - Speaking Out: Indigenous Film
• (00:28:18) - Indigenous Film's VOTIVITY
• (00:35:17) - Film Review: The Good Witch
• (00:37:24) - Film Review: The Visual Sovereignty
• (00:39:15) - Ayla in Smoke Signals
• (00:42:42) - The Film's Sound
• (00:46:03) - The Wolf In The Wilderness
• (00:51:40) - The film's depiction of substance abuse
• (00:52:53) - The Discovery of a Residential School Grave
• (00:58:29) - It Ending Explained
• (01:03:29) - The film's final scene
• (01:05:53) - Jeff Barnaby: His Legacy
• (01:10:14) - What's a Newbie to Indigenous Film?

Show trailer

• (00:00:01) - Austin Community Conversations