Dr. Travis Tubre: Psych Faculty for The Catalyst
When it comes to intrepid city walking in search of minor or major truths, there’s nobody to compare with Travis. Just ask Catalyst students who’ve followed his obsessive love of our classroom cities after various Holy Grails, logging 10 miles plus along the way. Last year in Paris it was a quest to see every version of the famed Wallace Fountains. When Travis is with us next? Where will your blisters first start to burn?
Hi everyone! I’m Travis Tubré, one of your professor for the Madness course. I can’t tell you how excited I am to work with you on this program. The faculty and students who share this adventure are an incredible group. One of the great things about this program is how it spans different universities, bringing us together from different places. As a bit of trivia, I share some history with many of you, because I grew up and did my undergraduate work in Louisiana, went to graduate school in Texas, taught at USM, and am now a Professor of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. I got my first taste of education abroad about ten years ago, when I had the opportunity to visit and guest lecture in a class taught in Scotland by my good friend (and Catalyst Professor) Rik Seefeldt. It took me a few years to get back abroad, but since then I have taught in a number of incredible European locations. As you will see, the mix of cities we will visit provides an unbelievable context for learning.
The Madness course will expose you to critically important themes in psychopathology and social psychology that are interwoven across our varying sites. The world will be your classroom. We will meet in coffee shops, museums, hospitals, battlegrounds, and even prisons. We will visit the Salpêtriére, where Pinel instituted his famous reforms, and Charcot taught such students as Babinski and Freud. We will focus on the role of social identity in understanding leadership, mob behavior, resistance, and nationalism in 20th century Europe. We will visit the Churchill War Rooms, where the British leader and his government commanded during the Blitz.
I hope you can see that we are in for quite a ride. As all the faculty members have noted, the experience really can’t be described in words. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try! I encourage you to connect with your peers, program alumni, and our faculty and staff on The Catalyst Facebook page to find out more about how and what you will learn and experience. See you in Europe this summer!
