The Politics of Care in Graduate Teaching: Building Supportive Academic Networks
Tea and Teaching: a Series for Grad TAs
February 11, 2026
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Location
Teaching Excellence Building (TEB), Room 107 and Zoom
Address
924 S. Morgan St., Chicago, IL
Calendar
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Overview
Being an effective graduate instructor starts with compassion for yourself. Prioritize your well-being at this event; we will offer practical self-care strategies, tools to navigate the challenges of graduate life, and resources to support mental health and resilience. Join us to engage in conversation with other UIC TAs about how to care for yourself and your students in these turbulent times.
After participating in this event, graduate students will have:
- Defined what well-being and self-care are to them as educators, grad students, and humans.
- Identified a Scope of Practice, to cultivate long term well-being and sustainability.
- Discussed how positive mindsets might relate to your and your students' success.
This is a event is a part of our Tea and Teaching Series for Graduate Student Teaching Assistants (TAs).
EVENT FORMAT: This event will be in a synchronous-distributed format. It is an on-campus, in-person event with the option to join online via live streaming.
EVENT LEAD: Emily Potratz, epotra2@uic.edu
EVENT CO-FACILITATOR: Jenny Torres, jtorr74@uic.edu
Inclusion and Accessibility Information: CATE is committed to making events accessible. CATE’s in-person events typically involve a combination of presentation and discussion-based activities. We welcome ASL interpreters, note-takers, and accompanying assistants to in-person CATE events. The TEB is wheelchair accessible with an elevator to the second floor space. The TEB space is equipped with fixed-height tables that are moveable and can be reconfigured. There are single-occupancy, all-gender, accessible bathrooms on the second and basement levels of TEB. CATE’s online events are delivered through Zoom, will use Zoom auto-captions, and may include breakout rooms and group discussion. Sessions will use Zoom projected with the Zoom into the physical space. If you have any accessibility questions, requests, or to coordinate accommodations, please contact the CATE team at teaching@uic.edu.
Date posted
Dec 9, 2025
Date updated
Dec 10, 2025