The contributions for this special edition of Humanity & Society came out of three
regional conferences that centered on teaching in the social sciences (Stonehill
College 2013, University of Indianapolis 2014, and College of the Holy Cross
2014). These conferences in some way served as interventions to the structural and
cultural processes affecting teaching today. They allowed for smaller, more intimate
spaces where we could reflect on the practice of teaching and engage in a dialogic
peer review. Rather than succumb to worrying about mean scores from Likert-type
scale items that measure student (read: customer) satisfaction with the offered product,
our evaluative efforts revolved around a reflective process of critique, encouragement,
and confession. The articles in this special issue of Humanity & Society
reflect those processes.