This paper responds to the occasionally stated imperative in some contexts to be neutral as part of being an academic development unit (ADU). For over a decade at separate professional meetings of developers, two of the authors have heard the refrain that they need to be--or at least be perceived to be--"the Switzerland" of their…

This article presents a humanistic dialogue between the authors that focuses on mapping place and identity in academic development. The authors chose this format in order to capture some of the important work that conversation among intellectual peers can do--work that forms the basis of much learning at conferences and in the corridors and…

The field of academic development emerged in the 1960s and 1970s as a result of student concern and unrest about poor teaching. This led to the creation of the first development units and a focus on course ratings which contributed to a thirty-plus year history of research emerging from a psychological perspective. In this article, the author…