A dozen faculty members from Beloit, Carleton, Coe, and St. Olaf Colleges have been selected to participate in the third ACM Seminar in Advanced Interdisciplinary Learning (SAIL) on the topic of Contested Spaces.
The faculty, who applied as campus teams, will join the seminar’s leadership team of two professors from Colorado College and one from St. Olaf to engage in a ten-day, on-site seminar in Colorado next summer. Building on that experience, they will collaborate during the 2014-15 academic year to develop multi-disciplinary curricular materials for upper-level students on their campuses.
The SAIL project, funded by a generous grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, is sponsoring a series of five annual seminars. ACM has issued a Call for Pre-Proposals inviting faculty to propose topics for the fourth SAIL seminar, which will hold its on-site portion in Jordan in summer 2015.
Contested Spaces will focus on environmental and land stewardship issues in the Pikes Peak region of Colorado. Structured learning expeditions, designed and led by the seminar leaders as well other participants, will draw on multiple perspectives to explore questions about land use in situations involving competing interests, such as urban development, ranching and other agricultural interests, water conservation, preservation of wildlife habitat, and access to natural resources.
To foster multi-disciplinary learning, the campus teams include faculty from across the natural sciences, humanities, and social sciences – from chemistry and biology to art and English to communications and political science. They will join a leadership team of Howard Drossman (environmental science), Jonathan Lee (philosophy), and Donna McMillan (psychology).
Contested Spaces participants
- Howard Drossman, Professor of Environmental Science, Colorado College (seminar leader)
- Jonathan Lee, Professor of Philosophy, Colorado College (seminar leader)
- Donna McMillan, Associate Professor of Psychology, St. Olaf College (seminar leader)
- Chris Fink, Associate Professor of English, Beloit College
- Jo Ortel, Professor of Art History, Beloit College
- Pablo Toral, Associate Professor of International Relations, Beloit College
- Nancy Braker, Lecturer in Biology and Director of the Cowling Arboretum, Carleton College
- Ross Elfline, Assistant Professor of Art History, Carleton College
- Trish Ferrett, Professor of Chemistry, Carleton College
- Lynda Barrow, Associate Professor of Political Science, Coe College
- Maria Dean, Professor of Chemistry, Coe College
- Theresa Donofrio, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies, Coe College
- Mark Allister, Professor of English, Environmental Studies, and American Studies, St. Olaf College
- Matthew Rohn, Associate Professor of Art History and Environmental Studies, St. Olaf College
- Dave Van Wylen, Professor of Biology, St. Olaf College
The goal of the SAIL project is to deepen the ability of junior and senior students at ACM colleges to undertake multi-disciplinary analysis of complex problems by supporting faculty in creating innovative course materials that encourage the kind of integrative, creative thinking that characterizes liberal arts education.
The first SAIL seminar, Considering Animals, met onsite in Washington, DC in summer 2012 and the second, Mediterranean Trivium: Earth, Sea, and Culture, held its on-site component in Italy in summer 2013.
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