In 2019, interim Executive Dean and Vice Provost Jan Box-Steffensmeier again issued a call for proposals for team-taught courses, led by professors from different disciplines, to showcase innovative teaching, promote the goal of interdisciplinary teaching and encourage interdisciplinary research.
For students, these courses would provide the broadest understanding of liberal arts education by conveying within a single classroom, the breadth of perspectives and interconnectivity that is inherent in academia.
In fall 2015 two of these courses, HIV: from Microbiology to Macrohistory (History 3704; Microbiology 3704) and Modernist Thought and Culture, 1880-1945 (English, 3273; History 3273) premiered.
Team-taught by History Professor Thomas McDow and Microbiology Professor Jesse Kwiek, HIV: from Microbiology to Macrohistory course offered students the unique opportunity to examine the scientific processes and the evolution of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) at both the molecular level and within its global historical context.
Rigorously thought-provoking and intellectually fun, short on easy answers but long on intriguing questions, Modernist Thought and Culture, offered students multiple perspectives and challenging, cross-disciplinary dialogue. Team taught by English Professor Brian McHale and History Professor Stephen Kern, this course surveys one of the most dynamic spans of Western cultural history.
Both courses were a huge success with enrollment far out pacing demand and expectations. These courses are being taught again in spring 2016.