Arts & Humanities: Toward a Flourishing State?
Conference Description, Program, and Resources
AAC&U's 2011 conference on Arts & Humanities was held November 3-5 in Providence, Rhode Island. Nearly 300 educators from across academic sectors came together to connect the arts and humanities with the needs of a globally challenged democracy and
focus attention on innovative and practical approaches to the arts and humanities. AAC&U appreciates the many conference participants and contributors who made this conference a success. The conference program and session resources follow.
Conference Registrant List
Conference Program
Thursday, November 3, 2011
2:00 – 5:00 p.m. Pre- Conference Workshops
Workshop 1 was cancelled
Workshop 2: Creating Artists: Partnering Liberal Arts with Study in the Fine and Performing Arts
Participants will consider the ways that institutions are partnering traditional liberal arts and sciences with arts education throughout arts courses and activities. They will explore the potential this partnership has for a positive impact on student learning and discuss opportunities to enhance this partnership for students in non-arts settings. This workshop is designed for educators who teach performing and fine arts students and those interested in exploring ways to advance creativity and artistry within other liberal arts disciplines.
Camille Colatosti, Chair, Liberal Arts—Berklee College of Music; and Ron Levy, Chair, Humanities Department—The Peabody Conservatory of The Johns Hopkins University
Workshop 3: Using Creative Artifacts to Assess Liberal Learning
Creative artifacts (novels, films, artwork, etc.) are valued when they are produced by established creators, but when assessing student learning, faculty are likely to ask for expository prose to assess the learning outcomes of various creative assignments. Participants will consider the potential of artistic inquiry to generate evidence of liberal learning as typically pursued in the humanities, and create a provisional assessment rubric that speaks to liberal learning.
Robert C. Lagueux, Assistant Professor of English and Director, First-Year Seminar—Columbia College Chicago; and David H. Krause, Associate Provost—Dominican University
Workshop 4: Building Sustainable Engaged Arts and Humanities Programs
Facilitators will discuss components necessary to the serious study of engaged arts and humanities in higher education: training/disciplinary knowledge, scholarship, and hands-on experience in interactive settings where these ideas are applied. Participants will apply this model of engaged learning in real-world and community settings in the context of their own syllabi, and identify challenges to and opportunities for civically engaged cultural partnerships.
Annie Valk, National Advisory Board Member—Imagining America, and Associate Director for Programs—Brown University; Adam Bush, Director, Publicly Active Graduate Education Program—Imagining America; and Jan Cohen‑Cruz, Director—Imagining America, and University Professor—Syracuse University
Sponsored by Imagining America
Workshop 5: Interdisciplinary Faculty Development that Fosters Interdisciplinary Faculty Work
Wheelock College's innovative Faculty Development and Evaluation Process connects junior faculty members with senior faculty mentors from different disciplines in an intensive mentoring process. Offered by a team of faculty members with an academic leader, this workshop will begin with narratives by junior and senior faculty members about how the process works and its advantages and challenges. Participants will then discuss and plan ways to put such a process in place on their own campus.
Nicole Dubus, Assistant Professor, Social Work; Marjorie Hall, Chair of the Arts Department and Associate Professor, Art History; Susan Kosoff, Professor, Theater; Roy Old Person, Assistant Professor, Social Work; Hope Haslam Straughan, Interim Chair of Social Work and Director, MSW Program; Lenette Azzi-Lessing, Assistant Professor, Social Work; and Julie Wollman, Vice President for Academic Affairs—all of Wheelock College
7:00 – 8:30 p.m. Keynote Address
Podcast Recording
Welcome Remarks
Susan Albertine, Vice President, Office of Engagement, Inclusion, and Success—AAC&U
What the Arts and Humanities Can Teach Us about the American Citizenry and Democracy of the Future
Arts and humanities are the touchstones for deeper awareness and understanding of the human condition, compassion for others, and preservation and evolution of the stories of our lives and culture. What is their place in every student’s undergraduate experience? How can it be that the studies that so uniquely connect us to knowing ourselves and the world can be considered unnecessary in preparing students for life and work in a globally interdependent and fractured society? Dr. Painter will critically examine the ways in which art, the humanities, and ideas about race can help forge new understandings of our history and our identities, and shape the American citizenry and democracy of the future.
Nell Irvin Painter, Edwards Professor of American History, Emerita—Princeton University
8:30 –9:30 p.m. Poster Session and Reception
Theme 1: Engaged by big questions
Poster 1: What Does This Have to Do With English?
This poster will highlight the interarts method for teaching English composition and research. Drawing from a learning community on art and society, materials will include texts, images, and objects used to expand the boundaries of a traditional English composition and research classroom experience. The presenter will share sample lessons with text, visual clues, and lesson sequences.
Scott Oldson, Instructor of English—Lehigh Carbon Community College
Theme 2: Practiced extensively across the curriculum
Poster 2: Teaching through the Arts in the United States and Japan
This poster will feature a cross-cultural, qualitative study examining the personal histories of eight elementary school teachers in the United States and Japan, and how their reflections upon their life history have influenced the integration of art into their teaching. Through in-depth interviews and observations, this study draws on the teachers’ current facility with art as a disruptive, useful, or subversive classroom tool. The display will share examples of students’ academic work and draw on data which demonstrates how the arts are used in schools in the United States and Japan.
Jana Silver, Visiting Assistant Professor of Art Education—Hampshire College
Theme 2: Practiced extensively across the curriculum
Poster 3: Service Learning, Zombie Narratives, and Being Human: Classrooms as Learning Sites
This poster will present three classrooms that complicate traditional academic divisions between various worlds: academic writing and local communities, critical thinking and popular culture, the visual arts and concepts of contemporary identity. The poster will share the logistics and benefits of a writing course focused on research and writing with community partners, the theory and praxis of a synthesis course focused on contemporary horror texts, and elements of a capstone course focused on the visual arts and concepts of contemporary identity.
Wendy Carse, Associate Professor of English, Brenda Mitchell, Associate Professor of Art History —both of Indiana University of Pennsylvania; and Shireen Campbell, Professor of English—Davidson College
Theme 2: Practiced extensively across the curriculum
Poster 4: Interdisciplinary Collaboration and Service Learning for Holistic Citizenship
This poster will share a model of successful interdisciplinary collaboration. The presenters have combined their courses on two-dimensional design with media and politics into a learning community featuring a service learning component. Materials will include a student designed calendar to raise awareness and understanding of social issues and the process by which it was created.
Judith Waller, Professor of Art and George A. Waller, Senior Lecturer in Political Science—both of University of Wisconsin Colleges-Fox Valley
Theme 2: Practiced extensively across the curriculum
Poster 5: AAC&U’s Liberal Education and America’s Promise
AAC&U’s Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) initiative is designed to champion the value of a 21st century liberal education for all students. LEAP addresses the demands of a globally interdependent world, intending to match ambitious goals for college access and completion to a 21st-century vision for learning. Participants are invited to visit this poster to learn more about the LEAP vision and the many activities of the LEAP campaign.
Nancy O’Neill, Director of Integrative Programs and the LEAP Campus Action Network—AAC&U
Theme 3: As human expression, anchored in civic life, addressing real world challenges
Poster 6: Can America’s Research Universities Integrate Art-Making, Top to Bottom?
In May 2011, the University of Michigan’s ArtsEngine initiative hosted a meeting titled The Role of Art-Making and the Arts in the Research University, in which 150 presidents, provosts, deans, directors, faculty members, and other leaders from 40 Research I universities participated. Since then, ArtsEngine has started four national task forces to strategize action on different fronts, and has established a website to support strategic information-gathering and dialogue to advance the mission. This poster session will share outcomes of the meeting and give participants the opportunity to engage in the initiative.
Theresa A. Reid, Executive Director, ArtsEngine, University of Michigan
Theme 3: As human expression, anchored in civic life, addressing real world challenges
Poster 7: Democratic and Deliberative Service Learning
Manchester Community College’s Partnership for Inclusive, Cost-Effective Public Participation is an example of how liberal arts education and deliberative practice can be used to serve community issues. This poster will share a curricular model (including assessment) based on an 18-month project involving the Federal Transit Administration's Public Transportation Participation Pilot Program, a regional planning agency, community organizations, and community college students. Materials will include the pedagogy for the project, demonstration of assignments and tools, and student work.
Rebecca M. Townsend, Assistant Professor of Communication, and Shelby Brown, Curriculum Advisor, Partnership for Inclusive, Cost-Effective Public Participation—both of Manchester Community College
Theme 3: As human expression, anchored in civic life, addressing real world challenges
Poster 8: New Music Technology to Encourage Student Creativity and Learning
Music education at a liberal arts college has a whole new outlook. In the past, a liberal arts institution would hope to provide the learned non-musician with a cursory knowledge of Western European music history. Now, music generated from computer music workstations is based on world music sounds and textures. The multicultural appeal is immediate and effective. Students of all backgrounds can learn the deeper meaning and practical application of rhythm and phrases, dissonances and consonances, and melodic contour—concepts that were previously only available to the intermediate or advanced musician. A whole new generation of teenage musicians performing solely with this technology is blossoming, and the liberal arts college is perfectly suited to bring this new technology into the academy. This poster will demonstrate how these technologies can be used with students and how the role of music teacher may be re-examined.
Michael R. Dilthey, Assistant Professor of Music—Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts
Theme 4: Demonstrated through application and performance, using new pedagogies and assessment
Poster 9: Using Interactive Theater on a Social Justice Campus
Because interactive theater entails both theoretical values (that can be proposed and examined critically in a classroom setting) and practical activities (a praxis that can be carried out and reflected upon in informal, even impromptu, venues), it engages a broad spectrum of academic disciplines and lends itself readily to the use of varied pedagogical strategies and outcomes. This poster will share a model for interactive theater and examine how it has contributed to the development of an inclusive campus community.
Reid Davis, Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies, Selam Kidane, Student Educator, Araceli Lopez, Student Educator, Seth Thomas, Student Educator—all of the Interactive Theatre Program, St. Mary's College of California
Theme 4: Demonstrated through application and performance, using new pedagogies and assessment
Poster 10: Meaningful Learning and Intellectual Challenge across the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
This poster will show how a college exit survey can assess the impact of arts, humanities, and social sciences curricula. Specifically, it will illustrate how questions about meaningful learning experiences and intellectual challenges offer insight into and across majors, departments, and divisions. It will suggest ways in which data from such assessments may inform institutional funding decisions that ensure the continued high quality of the institution and the comprehensive learning of its students.
Marc Levis-Fitzgerald, Director, Center for Educational Assessment, and Shannon Toma, Research Analyst—both of University of California, Los Angeles
Theme 4: Demonstrated through application and performance, using new pedagogies and assessment
Poster 11: Teaching Humanities in the Virtual Classroom (ppt)
This poster will introduce participants to Western Governors University’s (WGU) course Literature, Arts, and the Humanities. As a fully accredited online university driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs and a focus on adult learners, WGU has developed this course to incorporate the humanities within a student’s chosen field of study. This shift has allowed WGU to develop learning objectives that focus students on looking at disciplinary knowledge from a humanistic viewpoint.
Handout (pdf)
Anthony Siciliano, Senior Product Manager, Liberal Arts—Western Governors University
Theme 4: Demonstrated through application and performance, using new pedagogies and assessment
Poster 12: Promoting Integrated and Global Learning through High Impact Practices
Building on a 20-year history with the Asian Studies Development Program and a multi-institution Title VI grant, Middlesex Community College is launching an Asian studies program embedded with a set of essential student learning outcomes aligned with the LEAP initiative. This poster will share how this program will leverage high-impact practices to promote integrated, global learning among students. Participants will see how to create a culture of learning that spans disciplines through the digital arts and humanities.
Dona Cady, Associate Dean of Humanities and Matthew Olson, Dean of Humanities and Social Science—both of Middlesex Community College
Friday, November 4, 2011
8:00 – 9:00 a.m. Concurrent Sessions
Theme 1: Engaged by big questions
CS 1: The Role of Undergraduate Research in Re-Envisioning the Humanities
Undergraduate research in the humanities is an invaluable means of engaging students in the enduring questions of human experience. In this session we will share several models of mentoring and designing undergraduate research experiences in the humanities at four-year and community colleges, within core and major curricula as well as in co-curricular and summer programs. Participants will have the opportunity to identify the components of humanities research that might be feasible at their institutions and draft a relevant undergraduate research project.
Nancy H. Hensel, Executive Officer—Council on Undergraduate Research; Jenny Shanahan, Director of Undergraduate Research—Bridgewater State University; and Michael McDonnough, Provost and Vice President, Academic Services—Monroe Community College
Theme 1: Engaged by big questions
CS 2: Creative Tensions, Challenging Environments: The Arts and Humanities as Drivers of Interdisciplinary Change
Faculty and administrators agree that the arts and humanities are essential to thriving democratic societies and an educated global citizenry, yet struggle to fulfill this vision. Martha Nussbaum argues in Not For Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities (2010) that the very values and skills that the humanities provide to students and citizens—critical thinking, creativity, empathy—are those required to solve this so-called “crisis.” Critical thinking, creativity, and empathy, learned through the humanities and embodied through the arts, will allow educators to find innovative, sensitive ways to address the challenges ahead. The facilitators will engage participants in addressing institutional and cultural challenges to create solutions in four areas: 1) faculty work and rewards, 2) disciplinary cultures and intellectual turf issues, 3) institutional and systemic barriers of budgets and curricular design, and 4) competing faculty cultures of monasticism and collaboration.
Bonnie D. Irwin, Dean of Arts and Humanities and Professor of English; Patricia S. Poulter, Associate Dean of Arts and Humanities and Professor of Music; and Jinhee Lee, Associate Professor of History—all of Eastern Illinois University
Theme 2: Practiced extensively across the curriculum
CS 3: LEAP: Turning Ideas Into Action with AAC&U Resources
Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) is AAC&U’s campus-action and public-advocacy initiative designed to engage campus colleagues and the larger public in meaningful conversations about what really matters in college. In this session, the facilitator will review LEAP resources, principles, and practices guiding the campus-action component of the campaign. Participants will discuss LEAP’s goals and activities, with particular attention to efforts to ensure that all students—including those historically underserved by higher education—achieve essential learning outcomes. The conversation will include how institutions can use the campaign and the emerging national consensus around liberal education outcomes to guide educational planning and practice.
Nancy O’Neill, Director of Integrative Programs and the LEAP Campus Action Network, and Debra Humphreys, Vice President for Communications and Public Affairs—AAC&U
Theme 2: Practiced extensively across the curriculum
CS 4: A Multidisciplinary Learning Community for Adult Learners
In the current context of shifting curricula and budgetary constraint, the multidisciplinary learning community is a promising model for educating students on the roles of arts and humanities in society. This session will share a learning community model, ask participants to explore limitations in course structures, and discuss creative ways of working beyond these limitations to include alternative approaches available through collaboration and technology. The facilitators’ experience with adult learners will inform the discussion.
Alan Stankiewicz, Mentor, and Heidi Nightengale, Mentor—both of State University of New York- Empire State College
Theme 2: Practiced extensively across the curriculum
CS 5: Integrating Art-Making into the Research University: Strategies and Dialogue
In May 2011, the University of Michigan’s ArtsEngine initiative hosted a meeting titled The Role of Art-Making and the Arts in the Research University. 150 presidents, provosts, deans, directors, and other faculty and administrative leaders from 40 Research I universities participated. Since then, ArtsEngine has started four national task forces to strategize action on different fronts (advocacy, co-curricular, curricular, and research), and has established a website designed to support strategic information-gathering and dialogue to advance the mission. This facilitated discussion will share outcomes of the meeting, give participants the opportunity to engage in the initiative, and elicit participants’ insights about ongoing work in their own institutions that sheds light on any aspect of the work.
Theresa A. Reid, Executive Director, ArtsEngine, University of Michigan
Liberal Education and America’s Promise
Theme 3: As human expression, anchored in civic life, addressing real world challenges
CS 6: Supporting Engaged Scholarship in a Liberal Arts Context
Facilitators will engage participants in a conversation about the challenges and opportunities of engaged scholarship from the perspectives of an academic administrator, teaching and learning director, faculty member, and student. Using the facilitators’ institution as a case study, participants will identify common roadblocks to public scholarship and pedagogy and brainstorm strategies for creating more sustainable means of supporting engaged scholarship and teaching at their own institutions. The session will draw on the recommendations in Campus Compact’s A Promising Connection, as well as Imagining America’s report on Knowledge Creation and Tenure Policy in the Engaged University, as a framework for reflection.
Stacy Grooters, Director, Center for Teaching and Learning; Joseph Favazza, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dean of the Faculty; Elizabeth Belanger, Assistant Professor of History, Director of American Studies Program; and Amy E. Flynn, Class of 2012, English Major—all of Stonehill College
Theme 3: As human expression, anchored in civic life, addressing real world challenges
CS 7: Disciplinary Expertise in an Interdisciplinary, Transdisciplinary, and Multidisciplinary World
This session will explore the tensions that emerge as the arts and humanities move from disciplinary settings toward a more interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and multidisciplinary paradigm. The facilitator will share a case study involving a grant to a music department for public engagement. Participants will discuss solutions to key questions such as: How are disciplinary learning and performance transformed by engaging with different communities? How can curriculum practices that tend to be rigidly defined by accrediting organizations be transformed to allow more space for alternate careers and forms of expression without diminishing disciplinary proficiency? How do organizational structures and administrative procedures influence change, and, conversely, how might they be influenced by change?
Keitha Lucas Hamann, Associate Professor of Music Education—University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Theme 4: Demonstrated through application and performance, using new pedagogies and assessment
CS 8: Proximity Research and Campus/Community Engagement
Part of a multi-year arts initiative designed to engage university teaching and student research in the community, University of California-Santa Barbara’s Proximity Research project focuses on campus/community dynamics through the lens of urban planning, experimental geography, and public art. This session will describe how the project functions as a socially embedded studio/laboratory for teaching and research. The facilitators will encourage a broad discussion of how this model could be applied to the diverse geographic and demographic proximities of a range of university settings. Handouts will provide an outline for the capacity of interdisciplinary research, potential curricular and pedagogical strategies, as and methods for assessment of this work.
Kim T. Yasuda, Professor of Spatial Studies and Art—University of California, Santa Barbara; and Jesikah Maria Ross, Director, Art of Regional Change—University of California, Davis
9:15–10:15 a.m. Plenary
Podcast Recording
Valuing the Arts and Humanities in a Changing World: The Case to Be Made
How are major transformations in the academy shaping the arts and humanities? Thompson and Tymas-Jones, each from his own perspective, will discuss how the arts and humanities can build on collaboration with each other and with other disciplines and professional fields. Thompson will emphasize the changing nature of intellectual work in light of new knowledge of human development and learning; Tymas-Jones will address interdisciplinarity and cross-disciplinarity, providing examples of change in progress. Both will offer insights and facilitate discussion, making the case for the arts and humanities as essential learning and liberating practices critically important to our wellbeing.
Thompson Slides (ppt) and Notes (pdf)
Robert J. Thompson, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience—Duke University; and Raymond Tymas-Jones, Dean, College of Fine Arts—University of Utah and President—International Council of Fine Arts Deans
Moderator: Susan Albertine, Vice President for Engagement, Inclusion, and Success—AAC&U
10:45 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Concurrent Sessions
Theme 2: Practiced extensively across the curriculum
CS 9: Creating Across the Curriculum: An Intercollege Degree Program
One of three intercollege degree programs at Carnegie Mellon University, the Bachelor of Humanities and Arts (BHA) program educates students to communicate in multiple modes of media, from text to image to interactive environments. This session presents a practical example of how an interdisciplinary program can nurture students whose skills are greater than the sum of their areas of concentration. Using the BHA program as a case study, the facilitators will discuss what kinds of literacy are promoted by the performing arts as opposed to the material arts; what kinds of problems in the social sciences and the natural sciences can be addressed by these aesthetically based forms of literacy; and how interdisciplinary programs can promote the intersections of literacy in projects, courses, or events. The session will examine features of the program including first-year and capstone experiences.
Franco Sciannameo, Director and Principal Faculty, BXA Intercollege Degree Program; M. Stephanie Murray, Associate Director and Academic Advisor, BXA Intercollege Degree Program; and Matt Siffert, BHA '09, Music History and Psychology—all of Carnegie Mellon University
Theme 2: Practiced extensively across the curriculum
CS 10: Integrative Curricular Models in the Humanities, Arts, and Other Academic Domains
This session will share a curricular model that integrates disciplinary approaches to learning within the arts, the humanities, and other domains of academia into its general education curriculum. In institutions across the country, curricular pressure on the arts and humanities, especially within general education, is often intense, and arts and humanities departments struggle to maintain their status and relevance. The facilitators will describe the creation of integrative general-education courses across the liberal-arts college, including efforts by the department of history to integrate methodologies and practices of other disciplines into its general education coursework. Session activities will demonstrate how this integration might take place and allow participants to envision this kind of coursework at their own institutions.
John Thomas Scott, Professor of History and Honors Program Director; Sarah Elizabeth Gardner, Professor of History; Doug Thompson, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Interdisciplinary Studies—all of Mercer University
Theme 3: As human expression, anchored in civic life, addressing real world challenges
CS 11: Enhancing Understanding of Community Challenges through Arts and Humanities
This session will provide examples of how the arts may be used to teach history, provide opportunity for meaningful discussion of local and global challenges, and connect students to the local community. The following questions will be addressed: 1) How do the arts and humanities address the nation’s evolving demographics? 2) What is the role of arts and humanities in civic life and a democratic society? 3) How is connecting the arts and humanities to public history and the common good an important mission of higher education? 4) What is the role of the campus as a driving force for culture in a community? The facilitators will share examples of visual and theatrical creative work connecting with other disciplines, including site-specific theatrical plays showcasing local public history and art exhibits that engage the audience in reflecting on the importance of their ancestors to how their world operates today.
Teresa Longo, Dean for Educational Policy, and Sophia Serghi, Professor of Music—both of College of William and Mary; J.J. Cobb, Professor of Theatre, and Imna Arroyo, Professor of Art—both of Eastern Connecticut State University; and Virginia Scotchie, Professor of Ceramics/Studio Art—University of South Carolina
Sponsored by Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences
Theme 3: As human expression, anchored in civic life, addressing real world challenges
CS 12: Service Learning in the Arts and Humanities
The multidisciplinary nature of the arts and humanities encourages students to explore, analyze, connect, and reflect on the diverse facets of the human experience. This session will demonstrate how to successfully integrate service learning into arts and humanities courses as a way to enhance and demonstrate the achievement of important student learning outcomes. Middlesex Community College’s well-established service learning program has provided a platform to both reinforce learning outcomes and evaluate students’ achievement through experiential learning. Participants will examine how the pedagogy of service learning provides the structured context necessary to support the practice of integrative learning in the arts and humanities and helps prepare students for productive involvement in their local and global communities. In addition, participants will gain valuable reflective strategies and practices to foster critical thinking, professional development, and civic engagement.
Matthew W. Olson, Dean of Humanities and Social Science; Cynthia Lynch, Service Learning Coordinator; and Karen Oster, Chair of Performing Arts—all of Middlesex Community College
Theme 3: As human expression, anchored in civic life, addressing real world challenges
CS 13: Reflect on This: The Humanities as Resources for Campus and Community Service
This session will show how the humanities are strengthening and deepening civic engagement across America through the practice of civic reflection, a form of reflective reading and discussion now being integrated into service activities on campus and off. The facilitators will introduce the concept of civic reflection and describe its application and impacts in two settings: AmeriCorps programs in Rhode Island and palliative care programs in New Hampshire. The facilitators will then lead a model civic reflection discussion, using a short humanities reading to invite reflection on the nature of change as a dimension of civic leadership and service. Following the discussion, participants will be invited to debrief their experience, ask questions about applications and impacts, and discuss implications of this use of the humanities for fostering a more flourishing state.
Elizabeth Lynn, Senior Research Fellow in the Humanities and Civic Life—Valparaiso University; Marisa L. Petreccia, AmeriCorps Program Officer—Serve Rhode Island; and Emily Archer, Humanities Facilitator—New Hampshire Humanities Council
Theme 4: Demonstrated through application and performance, using new pedagogies and assessment
CS 14: Immersive Learning in the Arts and Humanities
This session will describe Ball State University’s commitment to immersive learning as the signature feature of its educational mission. The director of the university’s center for creative inquiry will describe the characteristics of immersive learning and the incentives and resources that are transforming the university’s culture of teaching and learning. Examples from two faculty members will: 1) illustrate how immersive learning has enabled students to make connections between the content and methodologies of art and philosophy to create a gallery show for their community partners, and 2) explain how immersive learning has enabled students to meld the arts and humanities to identify, study, and interpret “vernacular memorials” in order to mount a public exhibit for their community partners. Participants will discuss how immersive learning might be introduced into arts and humanities curricula at other colleges and institutions.
Joe Trimmer, Director, Virginia Ball Center for Creative Inquiry; Juli Eflin, Professor of Philosophy; and Debbie Mix, Associate Professor of English—all of Ball State University
Theme 4: Demonstrated through application and performance, using new pedagogies and assessment
CS 15: Arts and Humanities as a Vehicle for Retention and Institutional Transformation
Recognizing that the arts and humanities are ideally suited for interdisciplinary approaches that empower students to learn and study analytically, Delaware State University, a historically black university, has initiated a program that uses the liberal arts to retain and graduate high-risk students. This pilot program placed incoming first-generation college freshmen in learning communities to promote critical and analytical thinking, skills that are crucial to student success both in and beyond college. The long-term goal of the program is to lead institution-wide change with the learning-community pedagogical model as the vehicle. The facilitators will prompt discussion on the many ways in which the arts and humanities can creatively develop and implement learning communities as a high-impact practice, especially for those students deemed most at-risk.
Niklas Robinson, Professor of History; Myrna Nurse, Professor of English; and Susan West, Professor of Philosophy—all of Delaware State University
Theme 4: Demonstrated through application and performance, using new pedagogies and assessment
CS 16: Crafting a Student Services Pedagogy: Generative Practices from the Arts and Humanities
Our educational practices seldom take advantage of the signature achievements of the arts and humanities—their power to map relationships among parts and wholes, and to construct new forms and contents of meaning. Colleges and universities routinely fail to draw on the modalities and techniques of their artists and scholars to inform the organization of teaching and student support. The College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota has worked to draw on key lessons and practices from the arts and humanities to organize its student services into a curriculum that emphasizes the development of student autonomy. This session provides an overview of the effort and its implications for student-services work in a learning-centered paradigm. Drawing on the models and practices presented, participants will engage in a structured discussion of how their collegiate-services divisions might be enhanced by adapting models from the liberal arts.
Chris Kearns, Assistant Dean of Student Services; Carl Brandt, Director of Student Services; and Andrew Williams, Director of Diversity Student Support Services—all of University of Minnesota
12:00 – 2:00 p.m. Luncheon, Posters, and Discussion
Community-Based Arts Organizations: Where Students, Mentors, Dreams, and Talents Converge
The Providence community is home to a rich arts culture supported and advanced by community-based arts organizations. Join with students, mentors, professors, and community leaders from a range of community-based arts organizations to learn how they are collaborating and providing learning environments for underserved youth. Organizations will include New Urban Arts, Community Music Works, Youth in Action, AS220, Voices Encouraging Nonviolent Thinking, Open Door, Community Lens, and the Providence After School Alliance.
Facilitator: Adam Bush, Founding Director of Curriculum—College Unbound, and Director of Publicly Active Graduate Education—Imagining America
2:15 – 3:45 p.m. Concurrent Sessions
Theme 1: Engaged by big questions
CS 17: Toward a Flourishing State: Connecting the Great Works of Our Country
Soul of a People: Writing America’s Story, an award-winning Smithsonian documentary film, connects the economic and political tensions of today with those of America during the Great Depression, when many unemployed men and women found relief through the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Through the WPA Writers’ Project, a diverse crew of jobless editors, fresh college grads, schoolteachers, and dropouts fanned out across America to report local history, interview citizens, and produce a self-portrait of America in a series of travel guides. Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, Jim Thompson, Zora Neale Hurston, Vardis Fisher, Anzia Yezierska, John Cheever, and Studs Terkel were among those who were knitting back together a cultural fabric torn by a national crisis. This session features an excerpt of the film and discussion with its lead writer and co-producer.
David A. Taylor, Writer and Co-Producer—Soul of a People
Theme 1: Engaged by big questions
CS 18: Innovation and Design for an Intentional Curriculum
Innovation and design are fundamental elements to any institutional practice. This workshop will share three transformative curriculum innovations—sustainability and consciousness; gender, diversity, and internationalization; and community, religion, and science—and explore how they work at a practical level. The facilitators will discuss how design principles can help colleges and universities understand how such innovations shift and change an institution’s dynamic, and how the design process can reveal the essential nature of the institution’s educational profile. More specifically, participants will examine faculty-development options for the sustainability curriculum, syllabus and study-abroad options for the gender curriculum, and classroom practices in reflection for the community curriculum. Participants are encouraged to bring their own ideas for innovations to the workshop to discuss how using design principles might shape them and work them into existing curricula. They will also examine how to assess and manage the changes these innovations bring.
Maureen Goldman, Professor of English; Gesa Kirsch, Professor of English; and Fred Ledley, Professor and Chair, Natural and Applied Sciences—all of Bentley University
Theme 1: Engaged by big questions
CS 19: Engaging Students in Big Questions in the Humanities and the Arts
This workshop will feature University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire’s new general-education curriculum featuring bundled-course learning communities. Participants will gain an overview of the development and implementation of this learning-community model, explore the key role that arts and humanities courses play in integrative learning experiences, and discuss how to make these learning communities sustainable. The session will feature how multicultural and/or global competencies are addressed in the bundles and discuss successes and challenges to implementation and sustainability.
Katherine H. Lang, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of History; Cheryl L. Muller, Associate Professor of Chemistry; and Garry Leonard Running IV, Professor of Geography and Anthropology—all of University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
Liberal Education and America’s Promise
Theme 2: Practiced extensively across the curriculum
CS 20: Revamping General Education Using Arts and Humanities: Two Case Studies
This session will share examples of revised general-education curricula featuring the arts and humanities from two campuses. Augustana College involved faculty and students across the curriculum in an exhibition and publication titled Liberal Arts through the AGES (acronym for Augustana General Education Studies). This interdisciplinary collaboration incorporated the college’s art collection as common text in the first-year curriculum. The second example will explore how to humanize science through art assignments and the integration of the history and biography of science in the curriculum. The facilitators will share the intellectual challenges they faced in these efforts and provide tips on how to overcome them. Participants will be invited to share their own initiatives, challenges, and success stories on similar integration efforts.
Pangratios Papacosta, Professor of Physics—Columbia College Chicago; and Catherine Carter Goebel, Professor and Chair of Art History—Augustana College
Theme 2: Practiced extensively across the curriculum
CS 21: Addressing Academically Adrift: Redefining Expectations through Curricular Redesign
The arts and humanities are increasingly under attack as a luxury that may no longer be affordable in a time of global economic stress, when “practical” skills are needed to compete in the marketplace. At the same time, the content and skills with which students emerge from four years of college are being brought into question, notably in the book Academically Adrift. These two critiques of higher education bear a paradoxical relationship. One proposed solution, to increase the amount of reading and writing assigned to students, needs to be supported by a reimagined curriculum in which arts and humanities play a crucial role. This session will: 1) describe the theory and practice of an interdisciplinary curricular model that helps students think integratively; 2) illustrate how the redesign of course and assignment sequences can foster skills in problem-posing, problem-solving, and effective communication; 3) model the adaptation of key curricular elements to a different (discipline-based) setting; and 4) engage participants in critiquing a range of assignments along with samples of the resulting student work. Models for program assessment will be included.
Arlene Wilner, Director of Baccalaureate Honors Program; Pamela Brown, Chair of Communication and Journalism; and Anne Salvatore, Director of Writing Across the Curriculum—all of Rider University
Theme 3: As human expression, anchored in civic life, addressing real world challenges
CS 22: The Campus as a Cultural Catalyst
Higher education institutions of various sizes can play a significant role in the cultural life of their communities and vice versa. Whether these institutions present festivals and performance/exhibition series independently or collaborate with community-based organizations, their programming can dominate the cultural calendar of a community. Looking at examples from a range of institutions, participants will discuss how cultural programs from diverse educational institutions have an impact on their students, courses, and educational content across the curriculum, and on the community as a whole. Do the size and cultural organizations of the community affect the scale and the type of cultural programming offered by institutions of higher education? How can educational institutions and cultural groups work together to maximize the benefits of their collaborations? Participants will also examine the challenges and pitfalls that can arise from these collaborations.
Michael W. Haga, Associate Dean, School of the Arts—College of Charleston; Ron Jones, President—Memphis College of Art; and Raymond Tymas-Jones, Associate Vice President and Dean, College of Fine Arts—University of Utah
Sponsored by International Council of Fine Arts Deans
Theme 3: As human expression, anchored in civic life, addressing real world challenges
CS 23: Cultivating the Citizen-Artist: Integrating Social and Personal Responsibility into Arts Education
Undergraduate arts courses have the opportunity and capacity to foster students’ sense of personal and social responsibility, and their agency for social change in a pluralistic society. This interactive workshop will engage faculty and administrators in examining a vision of undergraduate arts education that exposes students to an extended field—one that includes arts in communities, schools, and prisons. The facilitators will emphasize the outcomes articulated in AAC&U’s civic learning spiral, including civic learning about the self, communities and cultures, knowledge, values, and public action. Participants will engage in mapping activities that serve as powerful tools for widening awareness about the power and possibilities inherent in the intersection of the arts, humanities, and civic learning.
Kate Collins, Graduate Research Associate—The Ohio State University Main Campus; and Lise Kloeppel, Assistant Professor of Theatre—University of North Carolina at Asheville
Theme 3: As human expression, anchored in civic life, addressing real world challenges
CS 24: Mentoring and Campus/Community Conversation
How can institutional partnerships encourage discursive spaces and multidimensional conversations? Infusing the mentoring model with the lifeblood of the humanities—meaning-making, discovery, and human expression—vitalizes service learning as a holistic and organic project rooted in community formation. In this session, participants will explore the practice of mentoring through a case study that connected a college campus and its neighborhood community. Participants will use artifacts and key findings as entry points for posing critical questions about the relationship between mentoring and access to higher education. The facilitators will lead an examination of how campuses can increase membership in the public sphere of ideas, and share challenges and opportunities for campus/community partnerships.
Jacqueline J. Barrios, High School English Faculty; Alice Villasenor, Director of Public Humanities Initiatives; and Lizette Zarate, Curriculum and Instruction Specialist—all of the Neighborhood Academic Initiative, University of Southern California
4:00 – 5:00 p.m. Concurrent Sessions
Theme 1: Engaged by big questions
CS 25: Bringing Humanities Faculty from Specialization to Integrative Learning.
Much is being written to extol the humanities’ foundational value to the development of a knowledgeable and educated society. Many of these publications urge humanities departments to nurture and cultivate interdisciplinary and integrative teaching and learning in their courses by addressing big and enduring questions. Many humanities faculty, however, having been trained in very specialized areas, resist teaching the big questions or cultivating integrative/interdisciplinary learning. This discussion will focus on professional-development strategies that support collaboration and multi- and inter-disciplinary approaches to teaching and learning among humanities faculty.
Michelle Loris, Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and June Ann Greeley, Associate Professor of Theology and Religious Studies—both of Sacred Heart University
Theme 1: Engaged by big questions
CS 26: Using a Shared Theme to Bridge the Campus and Community Gap
Public scholarship and community interaction strengthen democracy and citizenship, and the arts and humanities can play a vital role in bringing the campus and community together to explore issues central to the common good. This session will provide information on and discussion about how to effectively engage the campus and community in discussion led by the arts and humanities. The theme project provides the structure for creating a bridge between the intellectual and the practical, and the demands of everyday challenges and participation in civic life. Participants will learn the various steps involved with putting together similar programs, including how to get campus-wide acceptance of a theme and how best to involve the various academic as well as non-academic constituents across the campus and local community.
Prakash Chenjeri, Associate Professor of Philosophy, and Daniel Morris, Professor of French—both of Southern Oregon University
Theme 2: Practiced extensively across the curriculum
CS 27: Art Alive: Teaching Art History Beyond the Classroom
Art history lends itself extraordinarily well to multiple pedagogies, including active and collaborative learning, and fosters a variety of literacies. In 2009, the facilitators created a course entitled Art Alive! A History of Western Art through New York City Museums, through which our one-semester survey course went outside the traditional classroom setting and into two less-common academic settings: the museum and the Internet. This session will discuss the problems that community-college professors face in a large, urban environment, how experiences and assignments related to our college’s five general education competencies and LEAP essential learning outcomes can be developed, and how a similar course design could be implemented by other institutions, even in less urban settings.
Marissa R. Schlesinger, Associate Director of Academic Affairs, and Caterina Y. Pierre, Associate Professor of Art History—both of City University of New York-Kingsborough Community College
Liberal Education and America’s Promise
Theme 2: Practiced extensively across the curriculum
CS 28: The Creative Research Center: A Virtual Community
The Creative Research Center (CRC) of Montclair State University is a collaborative digital space designed to inspire discussion of the shared commonalities of imagination and creativity across all fields of knowledge. Informed by interdisciplinary roots, this unique website presents no disruptions or shifts in departmental structures; scholarship from all University faculty are welcome, and there is a very special spotlight upon the original research enterprises of undergraduates in the Virtual Student Center,. This discussion will begin with a schematic guided tour through the pages of the CRC website to inspire a conversation about useful pedagogical applications of the web in American colleges and universities, especially with regard to the interpenetrating concerns of arts and humanities in an ideally "flourishing state." The facilitator hopes to inspire interested colleagues to establish web-based centers of inquiry on their home campuses.
Creative Research Center: www.montclair.edu/creativeresearch
Neil Baldwin, Professor, Department of Theatre and Dance, and Director, The Creative Research Center—Montclair State University
Theme 2: Practiced extensively across the curriculum
CS 29: Connecting the Arts and Humanities through Shakespeare
The Shakespeare Project at Salem State University takes a multidisciplinary approach to experiencing Shakespeare’s plays, expanding from the individual course to incorporate a set of community collaborations, including with the Actors’ Shakespeare Company, the City of Salem, and the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. This model: 1) creates linkages among the excitement of performance, the rewards of complex, sophisticated textual understanding, and the richness of multiple perspectives; 2) offers strategies for teaching Shakespeare to varied audiences as well as achieving new personal understanding and insight; 3) connects the academy, the arts community, and other local and regional communities; and 4) offers opportunities for local, regional, and international collaborations. The project was designed to grow incrementally, lay the groundwork for opportunities to seek external funding, and make creative use of limited financial and staffing resources. The session will include discussion of how this model could be replicated with a focus other than Shakespeare.
Elizabeth T. Kenney, Assistant Dean, School of Graduate Studies, and Jeffrey Theis, Associate Professor of English—both of Salem State University; and Lori Taylor, Project Director—Actors' Shakespeare Project
Theme 3: As human expression, anchored in civic life, addressing real world challenges
CS 30: The Culture and Practice of Engaged Scholarship: A Case Study
Students and faculty have long pursued avenues for connecting their intellectual pursuits with their social concerns. Very often, the motivations for this synthesis have been personal and the journey solitary, and yet we want our "academic" understanding to inform community and global initiatives. We have seen the power of engagement in advancing scholarship.What elements of culture and structure nurture these endeavors at a broader level, particularly in the arts and humanities? Brown University has long been known for its student culture of activism and its alumni leadership in public service. Participants will learn how the university is working to deepen the academic context for these efforts, and define and support notions of "engaged scholarship" among its faculty and students.
Jonah Fisher, Religious Studies, 2012; Stephanie Fortunato, Public Humanities, 2008 and Deputy Director, City ofProvidence Department of Art, Culture, and Tourism; Amy Remensnyder, Chair, Medieval Studies Program and Associate Professor of History; and (moderator) Roger Nozaki,Associate Dean of the College, Community and Global Engagement—all of Brown University
Theme 3: As human expression, anchored in civic life, addressing real world challenges
CS 31: Reimagining Curricula: Educating Students for Personal and Social Responsibility
Educating students for personal and social responsibility—specifically including civic engagement, ethical reasoning, and ethical action—is a significant component of liberal education. It requires that colleges and disciplines bring to bear the skills at the heart of a liberal education and apply them to design a curriculum that better meets the needs of students and society. A humanities-based communication studies department at a small liberal arts college undertook that challenge and the outcomes have been inspiring for the students and the department faculty. The new curriculum significantly engages students in community-based education, civic life, ethical reasoning, and action, and more fully expresses the liberal-arts tradition of the discipline. This session will discuss the process of facilitating significant curricular change, and guide participants through the initial steps in reimagining curricula and holding programmatic conversations.
Leila R. Brammer, Chair and Professor of Communication Studies, and Martin Lang, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies—both of Gustavus Adolphus College
Theme 3: As human expression, anchored in civic life, addressing real world challenges
CS 32: Reacting to the Past: When the Curriculum Gets in the Way of Good Pedagogy
This facilitated discussion will focus on the complex balance of pedagogy and curriculum in the 21st-century arts and humanities classroom. The facilitators will outline one innovative and successful pedagogical model (Reacting to the Past) that connects the arts and humanities to civic life and public history, and makes the arts and humanities immediately relevant to students. As almost ideal reflections of George Kuh’s “high impact practices,” why are such “new” pedagogical models so difficult to incorporate across the traditional arts and humanities curriculum? Participants will be asked to share experiences of how experiential education models have worked in arts and humanities courses on their campuses. Discussion will particularly focus on the critical question of this future balance between innovative pedagogical models and the traditional curriculum in arts and humanities classrooms.
Diana Hope Polley, Associate Professor of English, and Nicholas Hunt-Bull, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and Associate Professor of Philosophy—both of Southern New Hampshire University
5:00 – 7:00 p.m. Reception and Community Conversation
Participatory Democracy and Reinvigorating the Commons
A thriving democracy requires the active participation of citizens, and physical and temporal space in which they can solve issues of shared concern. Technologies from radio to social media have connected people in important ways but have also contributed to a culture of disconnection in which citizens’ roles are defined primarily by what they consume rather than what they create. This conversation will focus on innovative efforts by educators and students, artists, and humanists to counter the pervasive loss of “the commons” by imagining and opening new spaces where participatory democracy thrives.
Kevin Bott, Associate Director—Imagining America; Adam Bush, Founding Director of Curriculum—College Unbound; Dana Edell, Co-founder and Executive Director—viBe Theater Experience; and Dennis Littky, Co-founder—Big Picture Learning and Co-director—Met Center in Providence
8:00 – 10:00 p.m. Film Screening
Soul of a People: Writing America’s Story will be shown in its entirety and followed by a conversation with its lead writer and co-producer. This award-winning Smithsonian documentary film connects the economic and political tensions of today with those of America during the Great Depression, when many unemployed men and women found relief through the Works Progress Administration. The WPA Writers’ Project recruited a diverse crew of jobless editors, fresh college grads, schoolteachers, and dropouts. Thousands fanned out across America to report local history, interview citizens, and produce a self-portrait of America in a series of travel guides. They included Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, Jim Thompson, Zora Neale Hurston, Vardis Fisher, Anzia Yezierska, John Cheever, and Studs Terkel. Besides publishing guides, they were knitting back together a cultural fabric torn by a national crisis. Soul of a People offers a fresh look at the WPA writers, their connections, and their cultural significance.
David A. Taylor, Writer and Co-Producer—Soul of a People
Saturday, November 5, 2011
8:15 – 9:15 a.m. Concurrent Sessions
Theme 1: Engaged by big questions
CS 33: Fostering Interdisciplinary Collaborations Across Varying Institutional Contexts and Cultures
This facilitated discussion reflects on both challenges and solutions for initiating and fostering interdisciplinary collaborations in arts-and-humanities research and teaching at smaller universities. It shares broad principles learned from recent collaborations at Wake Forest University and encourages participants to consider the needs and opportunities for collaboration that emerge in smaller institutional settings. The goal of the session is to facilitate conversation among participants and allow them to network, share perspectives and observations with one another, and develop a range of ideas and strategies for fostering interdisciplinary collaboration in their institutions.
Mary Foskett, Director, Wake Forest University Humanities Institute and Associate Professor of Religion; Cynthia Gendrich, Professor of Theatre; and David Phillips, Associate Professor of Humanities—all of Wake Forest University
Theme 2: Practiced extensively across the curriculum
CS 34: Humanistic Mathematics: Charting a Path Toward a New Transdiscipline (pdf handout)
The phrase “humanistic mathematics” is historical, has precedents that go back at least 30 years, and may awaken a wealth of connotations in those who hear it. However, the phrase also brings with it many challenges, not the least of which is the fact that it does not really have a good definition. This facilitated discussion will encourage participants to brainstorm and to envision successful pathways to integrate the various humanistic approaches to the world of mathematics in a scholarly fashion. Scholars in the fields of history and philosophy of science, social studies of science, literature, and cultural studies are particularly invited to join the conversation.
Gizem Karaali, Assistant Professor of Mathematics—Pomona College
Theme 3: As human expression, anchored in civic life, addressing real world challenges
CS 35: Applied Learning for Today's Humanities Majors
This session is devised to prompt discussion on the humanities’ relationship to the marketplace, and how humanities majors can use their skill sets in the workplace through internships. The facilitators will: 1) describe Endicott College’s hallmark internship program, requiring all students to complete three credit-bearing internships and requiring significant institutional commitment; 2) examine how internships afford humanities students opportunities to apply and deepen classroom learning, explore potential careers, and develop professional competencies; and 3) discuss the successes and challenges our students have experienced, and how internships and their accompanying learning outcomes are formally evaluated. Participants will discuss how the humanities foster applied and integrative learning, how and to what ends students are using their knowledge and skills, and how students are able to integrate and apply their learning within real-world contexts.
Mark A. Herlihy, Chair of Humanities; Abigail Bottome, Internship Coordinator; and Devin Rozansky, Internship Coordinator—all of Endicott College
Theme 3: As human expression, anchored in civic life, addressing real world challenges
CS 36: Transforming Your Campus Into a Center of Engagement, Enlightenment, and Inspiration
In preparation for the opening of the newly renovated Doudna Fine Arts Center, members of the College of Arts and Humanities at Eastern Illinois University spent significant time consulting a variety of constituencies to identify the center’s role in the cultural and civic life of the region. Using the model they developed and implemented to intentionally situate the university, particularly the arts and humanities, as the cultural center of a seven-county region, this workshop will provide guidance, strategies, and benchmarks for success for other institutions seeking to improve their campus-community connections. Participants will engage in short exercises and guided discussion designed to help them articulate a focused identity, take inventory of existing and potential resources, identify possibilities for short and long-term cultivation of community partnerships, bridge town-and-gown barriers to develop audiences, create and communicate success measures, and support cross-disciplinarity.
Patricia S. Poulter, Associate Dean of Arts and Humanities and Professor of Music; Dwight D. Vaught, Assistant Dean of Arts and Humanities and Director of the Doudna Fine Arts Center; and Bonnie D. Irwin, Dean of Arts and Humanities and Professor of English—all of Eastern Illinois University
9:30 – 10:45 a.m. Concurrent Sessions
Theme 1: Engaged by big questions
CS 37: Arts and Humanities in the Web’s Second Decade: New Textuality and Emergent Literacies
This session explores emerging movements in the relationship between liberal education, digital information, and the humanities. Participants will begin by assessing changes to textuality including the ascent of e-books, new forms of textual analysis, gaming as an art and culture industry, multimedia storytelling, the mainstreaming of social media, and new forms of composition. This survey will lay the groundwork for a description of new forms of literacy enabled by the profusion of new textual forms. Participants will examine the new information ecosystem, the transformation of information literacy, the generational differentiation problem, and the responses of liberal arts institutions. The facilitator will provide practical examples and techniques for navigating this emerging world and engage participants with a combination of energetic presentation, facilitated group work, and live demonstration.
Bryan Alexander, Senior Fellow—National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education
Theme 1: Engaged by big questions
CS 38: Funding Programs of the National Endowment for the Humanities
The director of the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Division of Education Programs will conduct an information session and workshop on the funding programs of the endowment, an independent grant-making agency of the United States government and the largest funder of humanities projects in the country. Discussion will include an introduction to the new Bridging Cultures initiative and recently funded projects.
William Craig Rice, Director, Division of Education Programs—National Endowment for the Humanities
Theme 2: Practiced extensively across the curriculum
CS 39: Creative Assignments: Student Learning and Assessment through Art, Music, Literature, and Cartoons
As the economic importance of creativity grows, critics of higher education call for creativity to be recognized as a pedagogical imperative. Facing a tough job market and a planet in danger, students need a flexible mental framework that encourages civic ingenuity and global responsibility. In World on the Edge, a philosophy-physics learning community about global crisis, students approach global issues by completing creative assignments (CAs) that explore course content through their own poetry, photography, painting, music, or political cartoons. Facilitators will detail the learning outcomes and assessment criteria used in the program and share examples of student work. Participants will adapt the CA model, creating their own mini-CAs and CA prompts appropriate to their own disciplines.
Christine Sorrell Dinkins, Associate Professor of Philosophy; Steven Zides, Learning Communities Coordinator; and Krista Jones, Student Preceptor—all of Wofford College
Theme 2: Practiced extensively across the curriculum
CS 40: Integrating the Humanities: Connections and Infusion in the Core Curriculum
An integrative approach to liberal learning is central to Wheaton College’s core curriculum. The connections aspect creates linked courses across two or three of six disciplines (humanities, creative arts, history, sciences, social sciences, and mathematics/computer science). The infusion dimension incorporates the study of race/ethnicity and its intersections with gender, class, sexuality, religion, and technology in the United States and globally throughout the curriculum. This session will focus on the intersection of the humanities with other divisions in relation to connections and infusion. Facilitators will: 1) describe several examples of connected courses in art and science and of infused courses in the humanities; 2) recommend strategies for generating these integrated classes; and 3) present specific learning goals for connections and infusion in these instances. Session participants will experience a connected class for a hands-on learning experience and receive assessment tools related to this work.
Joel Relihan, Associate Provost and Professor of Classics, and Evelyn Staudinger, Associate Provost and Professor of Art History—both of Wheaton College
Theme 3: As human expression, anchored in civic life, addressing real world challenges
CS 41: Communicating Effectively about the Value of the Arts and Humanities for Work, Life, and Citizenship
Building on research commissioned by AAC&U as part of its Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) initiative and other recent data about the labor market and student attitudes, this session will explore effective ways to communicate about the value of the arts and humanities in developing students’ skills and capacities for life, work, and citizenship. The session will include presentation of recent data as well as advice on how to develop effective messages about specific curricular programs and requirements that can be used with current college students.
Debra Humphreys, Vice President for Communications and Public Affairs—Association of American Colleges and Universities
Theme 3: As human expression, anchored in civic life, addressing real world challenges
CS 42: Empowering English Language Learners though Campus/Community Partnerships
This interactive session will introduce a program that enhances the capacity of museum-community college partnerships to engage and empower adult English language learners (ELLs) by improving their communication and critical-thinking skills. The facilitators will discuss the role of visual literacy in the development of other literacies, the use of art for building social and cultural capital, and the relevance of a professional-development program based on visual literacy pedagogies. Participants will explore Visual Thinking Strategies© and discuss the value of such models when used with ELLs and other students. Attendees will have an opportunity to reflect on their own practices and leave the session with a 21st-century model that can be adapted to their own institution.
Margot Edlin, Faculty Fellow for Academic Affairs, Kitty Bateman, Director of The QCC Literacy Program—both of City University of New York, Queensborough Community College; and Patricia Lannes, Consultant in Visual and Museum Literacy
Theme 3: As human expression, anchored in civic life, addressing real world challenges
CS 43: Interactive Theatre as a Tool for Civic Dialogue and Action
The current political climate of partisan opposition calls for the implementation of models for facilitating community dialogue that is respectful, productive, and inclusive. Traditional forums such as public hearings and town-hall meetings serve important ends, but their efficacy in accessing public opinion—particularly among marginalized communities—is regrettably limited. As a complementary forum, interactive theatre, based in personal narrative and human connection, possesses the power to frame, engage, and open up community conversation with much greater depth. This workshop will share how interactive theatre can create a more participatory democracy, including an overview of the form and examples from the facilitators’ community projects.
Robert H. Leonard, Professor and Primary Advisor, MFA Programs in Directing and Public Dialogue and Stage Management; Department of Theatre and Cinema; Ann Kilkelly, Professor, Departments of Theatre and Cinema and Women’s Studies; and Jon Catherwood-Ginn, Master of Fine Arts Candidate in Directing and Public Dialogue—all of Virginia Tech
Theme 4: Demonstrated through application and performance, using new pedagogies and assessment
CS 44: Assessment as Innovation: Involving Learners in Reflective Thinking and Practice
Many students perceive assessment as either a perfunctory act of self-evaluation or a compulsory response to department/program evaluations. However, when assessment functions as a site of innovation and knowledge creation, the value and relevance of metacognitive work in the arts and humanities becomes clearer, more engaging, and more deeply embodied in learning. This session features two facilitators from across the arts and humanities who are actively engaged in exploring ways that assessment of student learning might involve learners in innovative thinking and practice. Following brief discussions of projects and assessments organized around “Philosophy in the Streets” and “Visual Strategies for Engaging Students in Reflective Practice,” predicated on the methods of artist Tim Rollins and Kids of Survival (K.O.S.), the facilitators will involve participants in considering how to apply such practices in their own contexts and with their own populations.
Gray Kochhar-Lindgren, Director, Center for University Studies and Professor of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences; and Linda Watts, Professor of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences (American Studies)—both of University of Washington Bothell
11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Plenary
Podcast Recording
Giving Voice to the Future: Students Take the Mic
What do today’s students wish their professors and student affairs educators knew about them? How do they talk about their studies in the humanities and arts when interacting with friends and family? How have the arts and humanities inspired them to want to learn more about and engage the world in all of its complexity? Students from a range of disciplines and institutions will discuss how the arts and humanities have contributed to their developing identities and provided pathways to connect their interests, talents, and studies to work and agency for the common good.
Students: Rachel Benoit, Comparative Literature—Brown University; Jason Furbish, Business—Massachusetts Bay Community College; Ellen Gianakis, English and Linguistics—Montclair State University; and Jake Monaghan, Philosophy—University of Rhode Island
Co-facilitators: Ande Diaz, Associate Dean of Students—Roger Williams University; and Rebecca M. Townsend, Assistant Professor of Communication—Manchester Community College
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