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Julie Thompson Klein of Wayne State University Leads Workshop on ‘Interdisciplinarity’
Professor Julie Thompson Klein, center, with City Tech and John Jay College faculty members.
Photo by City Tech Professor Robin Michals
Faculty from New York City College of Technology (City Tech) and John Jay College of Criminal Justice recently participated in an enlightening lecture and workshop led by Julie Thompson Klein, Professor of Humanities in Interdisciplinary Studies and English at Wayne State University.
A past president of the Association for Integrative Studies (AIS), Klein is a leading author on the topic of interdisciplinarity. A work in progress, Creating Interdisciplinary Campus Cultures, will be published soon. In addition to helping numerous colleges and universities develop interdisciplinary programs, she was a member of the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU) National Task Forces on Interdisciplinary Studies and Integrative Learning and also served as a consultant for AACU's Asheville Institute on General Education.
A dynamic speaker, Klein provided workshop participants with an overview of the historical relationship between disciplines and interdisciplinary movements in higher education. She then examined the impact of interdisciplinarity on research and education across the humanities, social sciences, science and technology. Moving on to discuss interdisciplinary teaching and learning, she provided an overview of trends and examples of outstanding programs utilizing interdisciplinary learning in a variety of contexts, including general education, first-year learning communities and senior capstone courses. Her talk concluded on the theme of the importance of connecting skills of integration, collaboration and knowledge navigation in the Information Age. The afternoon workshop featured small group planning of hypothetical interdisciplinary courses and course modules.
The lecture and workshop were funded by the CUNY Office of Undergraduate Education's Faculty Development Grant Program as part of a year-long collaboration between City Tech and John Jay College to explore the pedagogy of interdisciplinary course development and how an interdisciplinary approach to teaching and course development can energize faculty and enhance student learning.
03.10.09
