The Possibilities and Perils of Cross-Disciplinary Inquiry

Mellon NW5 Consortium
Faculty Development Workshop
Hosted by Whitman College
March 4-5, 2011

An invitation-only workshop for members of the NW5C Consortium (link to “about the NW5C”) designed to bring together faculty members to share best practices and ideas on topics of common interest.

Topic: The role of cross-disciplinary inquiry in a liberal arts education

Guiding questions:

• What is the value of cross-disciplinary teaching and scholarship at liberal arts and sciences colleges?
• What are the goals of such inquiry, and what assessment mechanisms are appropriate to such goals?
• How is such inquiry best supported and institutionalized?
• What are the principal impediments to such inquiry?
• How might the NW5C facilitate cross-disciplinary inquiry among our faculties and student bodies?

Workshop discussions will be based on Julie Thompson Klein’s Creating Interdisciplinary Campus Cultures (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2010).

Program Coordinator: Michelle Janning, Assistant Dean of the Faculty, Whitman College (janninmy@whitman.edu) or 509-527-4952.

Sponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation