{"id":28861,"date":"2016-03-01T16:54:14","date_gmt":"2016-03-01T21:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom2\/2016\/03\/01\/necc-profile-elizabeth-casanave\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T15:54:46","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T19:54:46","slug":"necc-profile-elizabeth-casanave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/03\/01\/necc-profile-elizabeth-casanave\/","title":{"rendered":"NECC PROFILE:  Elizabeth Casanave"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_12950\" style=\"width: 125px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/media-old\/2016\/03\/ElizabethCasanave.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12950\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-12950\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/media-old\/2016\/03\/ElizabethCasanave-115x300.jpg\" alt=\"NECC philosophy professor Elizabeth Casanave\" width=\"115\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-12950\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">NECC philosophy professor Elizabeth Casanave<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Lizzie Casanave is always smiling. So it\u2019s no surprise that her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.necc.mass.edu\/academics\/courses-programs\/areas\/liberal-arts\/philosophy\/\">philosophy<\/a> courses include a workshop titled \u201cThe Science of Happiness.\u201d She encourages her students to look at happiness through the lens of positive psychology. Lizzie\u2019s teaching style\u00a0includes exploring the importance of self-knowledge and an understanding that true happiness is attained through changing how one thinks. She asks her students to envision the kind of world in which they want to live and imagine their role in creating that world. Now that\u2019s something to smile about.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Home<\/strong>: Arlington<\/p>\n<p><strong>Profession<\/strong>: Adjunct Professor and Study Abroad Short-Course Coordinator<\/p>\n<p><strong>Hobbies<\/strong>: Yoga, running, walking her dog, reading, and painting<\/p>\n<p><strong>Last book read<\/strong>: &#8220;Ethics: A History of Moral Thought,&#8221; by Peter Kreeft<\/p>\n<p><strong>Quote<\/strong>: \u201cA person experiences life as something separated from the rest \u2014 a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. Our task must be to free ourselves from this self-imposed prison, and through compassion, to find the reality of Oneness.\u201d<br \/>\n\u2014<br \/>\nAlbert Einstein<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why I do what I do:<\/strong> I am driven, in part, by a desire to live a meaningful life. I love to teach because I find such a sense of purpose in inspiring students to use critical and creative thinking to improve their thought processes, the quality of their lives, and subsequently, the pressing issues of the world \u2026 I know that to live authentically requires being a positive force for change. I believe through teaching individuals to think and to foster sustainable motivation, we can (as Gandhi puts it) &#8220;be the change we wish to see in the world.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lizzie Casanave is always smiling. So it\u2019s no surprise that her philosophy courses include a workshop titled \u201cThe Science of Happiness.\u201d She encourages her students to look at happiness through [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":28331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>NECC PROFILE: Elizabeth Casanave - NECC News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/03\/01\/necc-profile-elizabeth-casanave\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NECC PROFILE: Elizabeth Casanave - NECC News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lizzie Casanave is always smiling. 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