Dr. Olga Faccani
Associate Director for Graduate Student Development
Center for Innovative Teaching Research and Learning, University of California, Santa Barbara
Dr. Olga Faccani serves as the Associate Director for Graduate Student Development in the Center for Innovative Teaching Research and Learning (CITRAL) at UC Santa Barbara. In this role, she oversees professional development programs for graduate students, from first-time Teaching Assistants navigating their initial classroom experiences to graduate students and postdocs preparing for the academic and non-academic job markets. She manages the TA Development Program, which includes summer training institutes like the Summer Teaching Institute for Associates (STIA), and the Lead TA Institute, certificate programs such as the Certificate in College and University Teaching (CCUT) and the Certificate in Inclusive Teaching (CIT), as well as the credit-bearing graduate course GRAD 200: Pillars of Teaching Assistantship.
Originally from Italy, Dr. Faccani came to UCSB to pursue her PhD in Classics. Her own experiences navigating the university system as an international student inform her pedagogical approach, and at UCSB she is dedicated to facilitating successful teaching and learning by creating cross-campus networks of collaboration. Alongside her campus roles, she remains invested in community-engaged learning and carceral pedagogy, serving as a collaborator for The Odyssey Project, a theater and storytelling initiative at UCSB, bridging university undergraduates and incarcerated youth.
If you would like to discuss TA professional development, teaching consultations, or our certificate programs, please feel free to reach out to me at ofaccani@ucsb.edu.
Recent Projects and Publications
- Faccani, O. (Forthcoming 2026). "Tragedy of Displacement: Ancient Theater and Contemporary Social Issues." In I. Salvo and N. S. Rabinowitz (eds.), Classics In and Out of the Academy: Classical Pedagogy in the Twenty-First Century. Bloomsbury Academic.
- Morgan, M., & Faccani, O. (Forthcoming 2026). "Classics and Prison Education." In A. De Simoni (ed.), Volume on innovative humanities teaching. Il Mulino.
- Faccani, O., & Morgan, M. (2026). "The Odyssey Project: Teaching the Odyssey to Incarcerated Students." In L. E. Doherty (ed.), Approaches to Teaching the Odyssey. Modern Language Association.
- Faccani, O. (2025). “Cultivating Student Engagement, Inclusion, and Success.” UCSB Teaching and Learning Symposium.
- Faccani, O. (2024). “Fostering Campus-Wide Collaborations on Equity and Inclusivity: The Certificate in Inclusive Teaching (CIT).” Peralta Online Equity Conference.
- Dib, N., & Faccani, O. (2021). "Teaching Ovid in Prison: An Experiential Analysis." In N. Rabinowitz and E. Capettini (eds.), Classics and Prison Education in the US. Routledge Focus Series