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CIRCLE Workshop

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Outline

  • Monsters and Interdisciplinarity
  • Students and Interdisciplinarity
  • Career Paths
  • Preliminary Outcomes
  • Future Mutations & Adaptations

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Monsters and Interdisciplinarity

Why are monsters an excellent topic for interdisciplinary courses?

  • Monsters refuse to be placed neatly into methodological and theoretical rubrics, and as such are inherently interdisciplinary.
  • This course is anchored in this premise as it invites a reconsideration of our very processes of thought and creativity as imaginatively monstrous in the very best sense.

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Students and Interdisciplinarity

We are stoked about interdisciplinarity!

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But our students don’t have a solid grasp of what a discipline is

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  • The first session:
    • Introductions and interdisciplinarity
    • Students’ responses and interaction

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Career Paths

  • Discipline vs Job

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  • Communication Skills
    • Communicating across disciplines
    • Reconciling different viewpoints and limitations towards a common goal
    • Division of labor and conflict resolution

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Preliminary Outcomes

Preliminary outcomes from the students’ collaborative work:

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  • A Red Cedar River Monster
  • A tick that spreads a brain-hacking parasite
  • A lab-engineered grizzly bear nicknamed "Winnie" with an infectious bite
  • A magpie-inspired creature that preys on human loneliness

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. . . and many more!

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Future Adaptations & Mutations

  • Content:
    • More opportunities for shared sessions
    • Combined lectures where we all address the same topic through our disciplinary lenses

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  • Logistics:
    • The first session separate and the second (or third) session with the large group

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