By By: Mabel Myers
Editor-in-Chief
Daniel Davis, who started at IU South Bend in the fall of 2021, is a visiting professor in Communications Studies. Students who have had Dr. Davis know him as well-traveled with stories from everywhere he has taught.
Davis started teaching in 1971. He has taught at many universities and colleges around the world, from Scuola Lorenzo de’ Medici in Florence, Italy to University of Southern California to Purdue University. Both of Davis’ parents and several family members have worked as educators around the world throughout the years.
“I never really thought about ‘teaching’ as a profession (I was going to be a professional tennis player), and over time I walked back away from that orientation, realizing that I couldn’t really teach anyone anything; the best I could do would be to help facilitate a person’s learning,” Davis said.
In the classroom Davis creates an environment where people of every learning style and ability can prosper. Students are able to learn from each other and master the course material. Davis would rather call himself an “educational environmentalist” than a teacher. One of his passions is to create a place where everyone including himself is able to learn from one another as learning never stops.
Davis chose to come to IU South Bend this year to teach Communications classes for the Raclin School of the Arts.
“After working for several academic organizations that purported to prioritize teaching and learning, I was interviewing at a few places for the 2021-2022 school year, and during my interview with the faculty from IU South Bend’s School of the Arts, I sensed an authentic desire to facilitate student success and learning on the part of my interviewers,” Davis said.
While Davis has taught many places around the world he is also well traveled. His current favorite place that he has traveled is Florence, Italy. He previously lived next to Michelangelo’s studio on “Via del Studio.” Previously his favorite place to travel was “San Felipe” a small fishing village in Baja, Mexico/California.
