Interdisciplinary Learning Communities can synthesize research from several disciplines to deepen understanding of complex problems, inspire critical thinking, enhance undergraduate research, and strengthen collaborative learning. This PowerPoint presentation describes several Learning Communities at Pace University in New York city as Case Studies: Arts of Change: Linking Environmental Art with Social Practice Art as a Vehicle for Political Protest; Art Meets Science in the Costa Rica Rainforest: a travel abroad field-work class linking Ecological Art with Biology field work and lab work; and Social Change and Environmental Justice: combining four classes in four departments: Art, Anthropology, Peace & Justice Studies and Political Science. Interconnected, interdisciplinary learning environments provide integrative, collective educational experiences that can take learning and research to creative outcomes. The speaker will also discuss the new Dyson College Center for the Arts, Society and Ecology (CASE) at Pace University that grew out of these learning communities, and that serves as a vibrant center of creative practices, programming and interdisciplinary exchange between students, faculty and external scholars. The center fosters creative collaborations and research between the arts and sciences to support an understanding of complex ecological systems, to help solve society’s environmental challenges, and inspire positive change for future generations. By sharing innovations, art and science collaborations can energize action to initiate positive social change and promote awareness of environmental and health issues by directly involving communities, extending ways in which cultures imagine, create and understand.

http://www.pace.edu/dyson/centers/dyson-college-institute-sustainability-and-environment/center-for-the-arts-society-and-ecology