Creative Campus Courses

Humanities 161 Creativity and Crisis (Spring 2012)

Professors Bruce Barry (Owen GSM), Vanessa Beasley (Comm. Studies), Steven Tepper (Sociology), Mel Ziegler (Art)

Everyday is a new crisis. We are surrounded by global forces that challenge and citizens to live, work, and govern differently. But, do we have the creative capacity to respond to these crises in ways that advance social well being, justice, peace and prosperity? HUM161 will bring together expertise from from sociology, management, communication, and art to explore the fascinating intersection of creativity and crisis.

This one-time spring 2012 course is team-taught by 4 of Vanderbilt’s top teachers with guest appearances from experts near and far with real world experience managing, reporting and analyzing crises.

Commons Course: I need to fix that! Problem solving and designing change (Spring 2012)

Professor Elizabeth Long Lingo, Director, Curb Programs in Creative Enterprise and Public Leadership

We are faced with problems big and small on a daily, even moment-to-moment basis whether its wishing we knew when the next Vandy Van might arrive to the desire to help the homeless and support the environment. How are some people better able to develop solutions and create change than others? How do we make larger problems tractable and enlist others to contribute to and adopt our solutions?

This is a course for those students interested in making positive change in their world, and who want to become better problem solvers and innovators. We will draw from the latest theories of design thinking, creativity, and social change as we engage hands-on with the problem solving process.

Commons Course: SAY WHAT?!?!?! Provoking Creative Conversations (Spring 2012)

Professor Steven Tepper (Sociology) and Tim Pierce, Director (Executive programs, Owen GSM)

We have all been involved in conversations where we feel like were following a scripted routine. How are some people able to engage others and curate conversations that bring about differing perspectives, create unexpected insights, and keep everyone fully engaged?

This class is for students who seek to more deeply understand the art and science of conversations from cocktail parties and improvisation to interviews and panel discussions among experts on difficult topics.

ES 101.02: Constructing Vanderbilt’s Virtual Eco-Village (Spring 2012)

Professor Doug Fisher (Computer Science)

Students will design and construct virtual environments (landscapes, villages, buildings, artifacts) in the Second Life (SL) virtual world. Government agencies, including NSF and NOAA have SL sites, museums such as San Francisco’s Exploratorium, as do universities. A seminar goal is that students and faculty design and construct a village in Second Life that will serve as a repository for scholarly and artistic works (i.e., a library, archive, museum) by Vanderbilt students, faculty and staff on environmental and societal sustainability. Students will learn about virtual world interfaces and aesthetic computing; scope and characteristics of sustainability scholarship and discourse; lessons in design; and gain experience working in a group. Additionally, seminar participants will discuss other topics, including machine learning; narrative development; community participation; information science; computer databases; interactive art; monetary exchange; copyright and intellectual property.

ARTS 173: Interactive Portable Media and Art of Cell Phone (Spring 2012)

Professor Amelia Winger-Bearskin (Art)

Use of inexpensive media devices such as cell phones, music players, and other portable electronics to create campus-wide participatory events, including art projects, web interactive movements, unexpected musical environments, and grass roots media campaigns. Collaborative and solo projects.

MHS 220: Creative Expression and Illness Narrative (Fall 2011)

Professor A. Scott Pearson is a surgeon in the Department of Surgery at Vanderbilt University, who is interested in how narrative, when fully realized, can optimize patient care. This grant places creative expression at the center of a multi-disciplinary curriculum that will allow each student to express an illness narrative through creative media and design.

CMST 235: Communicating Gender (Fall 2011)

Professor Claire Sisco-King (Communication Studies)
How does the learning experience change when students participate in a more performative and non-traditional engagement with theories of gendered identity? Sisco-King brings theory to life as she expands the classroom into the Nashville community, including the Nashville Bridal Fair, a Nashville Rollergirls roller derby, and a midnight screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Students in this course will draw from these off-campus experiences in order to create a final, multi-media project that engages new theories of gender as a lived experience and cultural performance.