People @ Goddard

My name “Lyubov” means “Love” in Russian. Indeed, I have a plethora of love in my life. I love my little family. I love this universe. I love my past, present, and future students; my professional goal and mission is to help them stretch their wings. I love poetry, science, and the arts. I am fascinated by the possibilities of their integration. I love Rust. I do not have any rational explanations as to why I am so attracted to this phenomenon—rusting. A melancholic beauty, perhaps? I make “Rusty” photography and “Rusty” art; I write “Rusty” poems.

I grew up in Latvia, in the suburbs of Riga. An eclectic mixture of Russian and Scandinavian blood boils within me. I worked at colleges and universities of Russia, Canada, and the U.S.A. Throughout twenty years of pedagogical experience, I taught chemistry, physical science, environmental science, teacher education courses, philosophy, psychology, multiculturalism, video ethnography, and fine arts across the curriculum. Besides teaching, I published poetry and worked as an educational TV host and producer.

I am honored to be a part of such a progressive school as Goddard. I am happy to both advise and simultaneously grow with students who are interested in the following areas:

Integration of science, poetry, and the arts; human development theories, global studies/multiculturalism/transcultural communications and experiments; environmental studies/ sustainability/ deep ecology; philosophy of new science (quantum theory, chaos and complexity, super-strings (M-theory); postmodernism; radical pedagogy; holistic education; educational psychology; cognition and consciousness studies; video ethnography; system thinking and organizational theory; Russian culture and philosophical thought; transpersonal psychology/psychosynthesis; mental and embodied imagery/imagination and its educational applications, physiology, psychology, and philosophy; theories of creativity, new cosmology and metaphysics; on-line communities; the state-of-the-art media.

I practice a postmodern, self-organizational pedagogical approach that values dialogue, imagination, improvisation, freedom within flexible boundaries, subject integration, and a variety of modes of expression. I am inspired by non-orthodoxies, novelties, and pushed limits. I am attracted to the edge of creative chaos, where entangled and whispering possibilities are waiting for their chance to emerge.