UA’s New College Brings Cutting-Edge Interdisciplinary Conference to Campus

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The Association for Integrated Studies, a nationwide consortium of academics in interdisciplinary programs, will hold its annual conference from Wednesday, Oct. 7, to Sunday, Oct. 11, at The University of Alabama.

UA’s New College is host for the event.

The Association for Integrated Studies, or AIS, was founded in 1979 to push for the exchange of ideas among scholars in the arts and sciences. New College is a supporting institution of AIS.

“The conferences attract teachers, administrators, graduate students and independent scholars who have a keen interest in developing research and instruction in interdisciplinary studies,” according to the Web site of AIS. “Sessions cover a wide range of topics, and attendees have the opportunity to network and share viewpoints in an atmosphere of mutual respect, interest and encouragement.”

Timothy Eatman, professor at Syracuse University and director of the Imagining America Project, will offer the keynote address on interdisciplinary community engagement and his role in the recent Imagining America report on tenure at a 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 8 dinner in the Hotel Capstone Ballroom.

In addition, the conference will offer a lunch session at noon Saturday, Oct. 10, titled “Interdisciplinary Use of the Paul R. Jones Collection of Art,” featuring a presentation by Dr. Amalia Amaki, professor of art and art history at UA, and Paul R. Jones, who donated the collection.

Other highlights include a session at 2:15 p.m. Friday, Oct. 9, titled “Play” and featuring a presentation by Thylias Moss, a poet and professor of English at the University Michigan. Her work is titled “Limited Fork Theory as a Thinking Playground.” Other topics of the conference include “Creativity and Civic Engagement,” “Storytelling, Poetry, Literature, and the Arts” and “Creativity and Collaboration.”

A lunch presentation at noon Friday, Oct. 9, will feature Dr. Joe Trimmer, director of the Virginia Ball Center for Creative Inquiry at Ball State University, who will speak on the center’s approaches to interdisciplinary creativity. Also, the conference will feature a special track of presentations and workshops focusing on new work in digital humanities.

Graduate students involved in a project called Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory, or HASTAC, will offer presentations on their work at 3:45 p.m. Friday.

Several UA professors from several disciplines will join their colleagues from around the nation as well as Canada and Europe. Dr. Marysia Galbraith, associate professor of anthropology and New College, is the coordinator. The conference will be at the Bryant Conference Center and the Hotel Capstone on the UA campus. Registration is $350. For details, contact New College at 205/348-4600.

UA’s New College is part of the College of Arts and Sciences, the University’s largest division and the largest liberal arts college in the state. Students from the College have won numerous national awards including Rhodes Scholarships, Goldwater Scholarships and memberships on the USA Today Academic All American Team.