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SAIL - Seminars in Advanced Interdisciplinary Learning

 

Call for Pre-Proposals
 

Propose a topic,

U.S. site, and

leadership for the

2014 seminar
 

Extended Deadline:

May 13, 2013

The ACM-Mellon Seminars in Advanced Interdisciplinary Learning (SAIL) are seminar-based learning communities that enable faculty from ACM colleges to explore salient topics in cross-disciplinary contexts. By immersing faculty in settings that encourage multiple perspectives and collaboration across disciplines, the seminars lay the foundation for the participants to develop innovative, integrative advanced-level coursework.

Funded by a generous grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the SAIL project consists of five annual seminars. Each of the seminars includes a ten-day, intensive off-campus study experience held at a site that offers rich resources for multi-disciplinary lessons about the topic. The off-campus sites for the five seminars will alternate between domestic and international locations.

There are currently two SAIL seminars in session:

  • Considering Animals - The inaugural SAIL seminar used Washington, DC as the location for its onsite portion in summer 2012. During the 2012-13 academic year, the faculty participating in Considering Animals are creating multi-disciplinary courses and modules, which they are integrating into their colleges' curricula.
  • Mediterranean Trivium: Earth, Sea, & Culture - This seminar will hold its onsite component in Italy during summer 2013, with curricular development continuing throughout the 2013-14 academic year.

SAIL Seminar Goals

Each SAIL seminar is designed to:

  • Examine a broad, enduring topic in multi-disciplinary contexts for a 10-day seminar;
  • Travel to a site in the U.S. or abroad that would be propitious for exploring the topic from various disciplinary perspectives;
  • Engage 15 ACM faculty across all divisions — math and natural sciences, arts and humanities, and social sciences — as leaders and participants;
  • Generate ideas and tools for integrative curricular elements for upper-level students that will be developed and implemented in the ensuing academic year;
  • Enlist a faculty leadership team representing the three disciplinary divisions to design the intellectual content and direct the seminar;
  • Benefit individual faculty and the advanced students who study with them.

In effect, SAIL will establish temporary research centers at sites around the globe, challenging participants to leave their physical and intellectual comfort zones and explore big questions through new methodologies and perspectives.

Please visit the following pages  for further information:

Our Collaborations