Ethical Interdisciplinary Collaboration to Enhance Humanistic Thinking

FAIN: AKA-260452-18

Allegheny College (Meadville, PA 16335-3903)
M. Soledad Caballero (Project Director: October 2017 to November 2019)
Aimee Knupsky (Co Project Director: March 2018 to November 2019)

The development of an “Ethical Interdisciplinary” partnership that will expand the role of humanities education for undergraduates.

This planning grant will allow us to apply ethical interdisciplinarity at Allegheny College to enhance the impact of the humanities. We define ethical interdisciplinarity as interdisciplinary partnerships that allow scholars to learn with one another, rather than to learn about each other in isolation. Our planning committee will develop plans for the following: 1) interdisciplinary team-taught courses that intentionally connect the humanities and the sciences, 2) an investigation of the influence of the humanities in existing interdisciplinary programs, 3) the expansion of the humanities in experiential programming, 4) the incorporation of the humanities into Allegheny’s new model of adaptive advising, 5) the establishment of protocol for interdisciplinary and collaborative senior capstone projects, and 6) the development of interdisciplinary research and teaching teams. This work will align current and proposed initiatives to achieve curricular and co-curricular coherence.

Media Coverage

Allegheny College professors receive grant to integrate Humanities and Sciences (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Meadville Tribune
Publication: Meadville Tribune
Date: 4/26/2018
Abstract: This article announces that Allegheny College associate professor of English M. Soledad Caballero, project director, and associate professor of psychology Aimee Knupsky, co-project director, have been awarded $35,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities to plan for interdisciplinary partnerships between the natural sciences and the humanities and to extend the impact of the humanities in and out of the classroom.
URL: http://www.meadvilletribune.com/news/local_news/allegheny-college-professors-receive-grant-to-integrate-humanities-and-sciences/article_9f59b101-94f5-554f-b098-1edb0a20a085.html

Grant to help integrate Meadville college’s departments (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Times-News staff
Publication: GoErie.com
Date: 4/25/2018
Abstract: This article announces that Allegheny College associate professor of English M. Soledad Caballero, project director, and associate professor of psychology Aimee Knupsky, co-project director, have been awarded $35,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities to plan for interdisciplinary partnerships between the natural sciences and the humanities and to extend the impact of the humanities in and out of the classroom.
URL: http://www.goerie.com/news/20180425/grant-to-help-integrate-meadville-colleges-departments

Allegheny Professors Receive Grant to Integrate the Humanities and Sciences (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Rick Stanley
Publication: Allegheny College website
Date: 4/24/2018
Abstract: This article announces that Allegheny College associate professor of English M. Soledad Caballero, project director, and associate professor of psychology Aimee Knupsky, co-project director, have been awarded $35,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities to plan for interdisciplinary partnerships between the natural sciences and the humanities and to extend the impact of the humanities in and out of the classroom.
URL: https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2018/04/24/allegheny-professors-receive-grant-to-integrate-the-humanities-and-sciences/

Associated Products

Advertising for Karl W. Weiss '87 Faculty Lecture Series (Web Resource)
Title: Advertising for Karl W. Weiss '87 Faculty Lecture Series
Author: Aimee Knupsky
Author: M Soledad Caballero
Abstract: This is the website archive for the announcement of the Karl W. Weiss '87 Faculty Lecture Series presentation about interdisciplinarity. This presentation introduced the Allegheny Community to the goals for the NEH Humanities Connections Planning Grant.
Year: 2018
Primary URL: https://events.allegheny.edu/event/karl_w_weiss_87_faculty_lecture_series_5919#.XbX0bi2ZN-W
Primary URL Description: Advertising for Karl W. Weiss '87 Faculty Lecture Series

"There is no striving with a forward girl; interdisciplinary explorations of affect" (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: "There is no striving with a forward girl; interdisciplinary explorations of affect"
Abstract: Through a serendipitous discovery six years ago, we came together to create a writing collaborative partnership that transformed how we work, how we feel about that work, and the directions that work has taken. Before joining forces, we had individual trajectories as a literary scholar of the nineteenth century and as a cognitive psychologist. Together we pursued a professional development opportunity to explore cross-disciplinary investigations of affect. We engage new areas of research not by building bridges to each other’s areas of expertise but by working together from the ground up to create unique foundations of knowledge. This process is full of curiosity, awe, and discovery. In this talk we tell the story of how we came together, what we have been working on, why it matters, and where we are headed. It is a story about how a leap of faith can reinvigorate your teaching and how that energy can transform the direction of your scholarship.
Author: M Soledad Caballero
Author: Aimee Knupsky
Date: 9-18-18
Location: Allegheny College

Teaching Tomorrow Today: Humanities, Arts, and STEMM in Conversation (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Teaching Tomorrow Today: Humanities, Arts, and STEMM in Conversation
Abstract: Questions about integration, of arts, humanities, STEM, medicine together, are shaped by discipline and context. Yet the overarching question that is central to the arts and humanities— what does it mean to be human?—invites scholars of all disciplines and fields into conversation. The humanities are crucial in responding to grand challenges because underlying any of these challenges are basic questions of who we are and how we ought to live. This panel discussion will explore questions about integration and ethos from vantage points in the humanities. What does reciprocity between arts, humanities, and STEMM mean? How can an integrative and ethical framing bring the humanities within reach of vulnerable populations? How can integrative approaches to humanities programs benefit general education, benefit graduate students? How might modern language study contribute to integration? After interactive discussion of these questions, the session will invite participants to practice a mapping exercise, a chance to converse and to do the hands-on work of designing connections.
Author: Susan Albertine
Author: M Soledad Caballero
Author: Aimee Knupsky
Author: Heidi Bostic
Author: Paula M. Krebs
Date: 4-12-19
Location: Washington DC National Academies of Science
Primary URL: http://sites.nationalacademies.org/cs/groups/pgasite/documents/webpage/pga_192125.pdf
Primary URL Description: Program of Branches from the Same Tree: A National Convening on the Integration of Arts, Humanities, and STEMM in Higher Education

Thoughts about Interdisciplinary Experiences at Allegheny College (Web Resource)
Title: Thoughts about Interdisciplinary Experiences at Allegheny College
Author: M Soledad Caballero
Author: Aimee Knupsky
Abstract: Survey created to assess perceptions of interdisciplinary programming at Allegheny College. Survey was shared with the campus community through a campus-wide call for participation. The link provided is to the survey questions.
Year: 2018
Primary URL: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdCyp1ifOdNqwQZZBOQut3v0JNKHUNwJtQ7fqJ1p7LfDEeF0g/viewform?usp=sf_link
Primary URL Description: Survey created to assess perceptions of interdisciplinary programming at Allegheny College. Survey was shared with the campus community through a campus-wide call for participation. The link provided is to the survey questions.

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