Anna Wells Piotti Castonguay

Wells Castonguay

Assistant Director of the Center for Inclusive Teaching and Learning

Associations
Center for Inclusive Teaching and Learning

Dana Hall 217

wcastonguay@bates.edu
207-753-6971

Want to Meet? Here is my calendar.
About

“Please call me Wells,” says Dr. Castonguay, a language pedagogy expert who has experience as a diversity, equity, and inclusion instructional consultant. Wells’ research is rooted in the classroom, designing pedagogical materials to nurture powerful learning and helping instructors integrate social justice pedagogy into their instructional practice.

After completing a B.A. in German and Teaching at Bowdoin College (2016) and a dual title Ph.D. in Language Science and German Linguistics at Penn State (2023), Wells is excited to be back home in Maine and working with the Bates community. Do you ever design learning materials or programs? Or does your work at Bates aim at fostering productive learning environments for or promoting individual growth in students, faculty, staff, and/or community members? If yes, you are welcome to come find Wells in Dana. They/she can be a sounding board for your ideas, a confidant for your concerns, a handyperson for challenges, or a collaborator on almost any teaching/learning-focused project. If you want to learn more about Wells and their/her work, here is a helpful website: LINK.

A Selection of Relevant Prior Work
  • Workshop: Castonguay, A.W.P. “Difficult Dialogues.” 2024. Bates College. LINK. This workshop open to all educators runs 1 hour and explores how we can feel confident navigating hot moments and bringing in challenging topics into our learning spaces.
  • Publication: Piotti, A., Matangos, H., Chin, A., Goetze, J., Keppenne, V., & Kerschen K. “(Co)constructing critical pedagogies: Expanding on standing departmental approaches to foreign language teaching.” 2022. Second Language Research & Practice (3):1. LINK. This resource describes an undergraduate German program’s work to integrate social justice-oriented teaching practices and materials into language-learning courses.
  • Resource Developed: Castonguay, A.W.P. “Information about Generative AI.” 2023. Bates College. LINK. This resource introduces the possibilities and challenges that generative artificial intelligence poses for our learning spaces.