NEW OPPORTUNITIES TO SUPPORT INQUIRY-BASED, INTERDISCIPLINARY, AND COLLABORATIVE TEACHING AND SCHOLARSHIP

To: Grinnell College Faculty
From: Dean Paula V. Smith
July 17, 2008

With support from the Mellon Foundation, the Dean's office is developing new programs to promote a sense of intellectual adventure, enterprise, and collaboration among faculty members in concert with the interdisciplinary evolution of our curriculum.

We envision using new resources to:

  • provide opportunities for faculty collaboration across departments and divisions, including team-teaching courses or formally participating as a student in another faculty member's course (with course release);
  • enable mid-career faculty to acquire new skills, experiences, or areas of knowledge in support of their research projects;
  • support speakers, symposia, or consultants to help faculty members and students foster new configurations of exchange across the curriculum;
  • enable travel in connection with the design and teaching of courses and MAPs to strengthen inquiry-based and/or interdisciplinary learning opportunities, possibly including travel
  • for design and support of courses that will incorporate domestic or foreign travel (for students and their instructor) during Breaks in the academic year, and
  • that can give students and/or faculty members a chance to take advantage of resources available through Grinnell's off-campus study programs and network of connections in London and Washington, DC.

We invite preliminary proposals (250-500 words) from faculty members that describe projects you want to pursue to support development of inquiry-based, interdisciplinary and/or collaborative teaching and scholarship. Please include a rough estimate of resources required-for example, travel logistics support, funding, materials-in order to help us as we allocate funds to this program. We encourage proposals from groups of faculty, as well as individuals. For group proposals, please designate a primary correspondent. Preliminary proposals should be sent to Associate Dean Leslie Gregg-Jolly, Nollen 3rd or greggjol@grinnell.edu. We will begin reviewing these proposals on September 10, 2008 for projects that could begin as early as Spring 2009.

In general, you can expect us to confer with you about your ideas and to refer your proposal to appropriate College committees (Instructional Support, Committee on Faculty Scholarship, or Office of Interdisciplinary Studies), which will oversee and adjudicate competitions among proposals. In most cases, fully developed proposals will consist of a more detailed plan for your project, explain its congruence with the priorities of the Expanding Knowledge Initiative (EKI, http://www.grinnell.edu/offices/dean/eki/), and offer a description of expected outcomes.

Your contribution to this initial process will help us to design programs so that we can most effectively match resources to faculty aspirations and ideas.