Crisis on Campus_ A Bold Plan for Reforming Our Colleges and Universities - Mark C. Taylor [56]
What faculty members teach will have to change as much as how they teach. Working in new ways with people not only across the university but also beyond the walls of educational institutions is required. To open new lines of communication, we offer faculty seminars in each of the zones. So far faculty members from the Department of Religion have joined with colleagues from a broad range of other departments and other cultural institutions in New York City. I am currently leading a faculty seminar as well as a graduate course in the Media Zone on a topic relevant to the argument I am developing in this book—Networks and Networking. This is a concrete example of the kind of focus area that can be explored in new interdisciplinary zones of inquiry. The following description suggests the orientation of the inquiry.
Networks and Networking
This faculty seminar will examine various kinds of networks and explore their relationship to social, political and cultural ideas and practices. Consideration will be given to the role of networks in industrial, consumer and financial capitalism through an investigation of railroads, typewriters, telephones, television, Internet, the World Wide Web and cell phones. We will also consider how networks function in living organisms (neural networks, immune systems) and natural systems (insect colonies and ecosystems). Special attention will be given to the ways in which recent theories of emergent complex adaptive systems can illuminate the distinctive structure and operational logic of networks. Do networks share a common structure? Do they function the same way in different settings? How do natural, social, economic and cultural networks interact?
I have planned the faculty seminar to bring together people in the arts, humanities, and the social and natural sciences. In addition to promoting ongoing faculty development, these seminars are intended to encourage cooperation that will result in new avenues of study for both undergraduates and graduate students. As these connections expand and relationships deepen, new courses will emerge and the curriculum will be transformed.
The response of both faculty members and graduate students to these changes has been overwhelmingly positive. The department has been reenergized, and there is growing optimism about the future of higher education in the study of religion even in these troubled times. Graduate students already are beginning to think about their research differently and are starting to consider how they can develop projects that are more inclusive and comprehensive. As these changes begin to occur, it is becoming clear that redesigning departments and creating problem-oriented programs will have another beneficial result. It will help to bridge the widening gap between teaching and research. In my own experience, teaching has always contributed to research and writing has always improved teaching. But in the culture of rarefied expertise, teaching and research tend to be set in opposition. Studying with colleagues from different fields and teaching new materials enriches research and leads to publications that will have a wider audience and be of greater relevance both within and beyond the walls of the university.
It is important to build on the considerable strengths of American higher education, while at the same time encouraging new opportunities for research and teaching. This is not change for change’s sake; to the contrary, a more interconnected faculty and more flexible curriculum will promote innovation that will result in courses that are much more relevant for students in today’s world. In addition to disclosing new horizons for thinking, traditional areas of inquiry will be recast in ways that show how they can actually illuminate what is going on beyond the walls of colleges and universities.