Conference Program

Panel 1: Envisioning the Interdisciplinary Campus of the Future

What are the factors that will produce the ideal environment for research and collaboration across the disciplines? What should the interdisciplinary campus of the future be like? How should this campus adapt to the rapid change associated with new tools and methods for discovery and knowledge dissemination? This panel represents campus visionaries who have thought about these questions and who will share their ideas about the future of interdisciplinarity at UW–Madison.

Moderator

Laurie Beth Clark, Vice Provost for Faculty and Staff

Panelists

• Jon Foley, Director, Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE); Gaylord Nelson Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences
• Walter Dickey, Evjue-Bascom Professor of Law; Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, UW–Madison Law School; Faculty Director of the Frank J. Remington Center
• Linda Hogle, Associate Professor of Medical History & Bioethics and Anthropology; Director, Working Group on Transdisciplinary Studies of Health and Society
• Miron Livny, Professor of Computer Science
• Sharon Derry, Professor of Educational Psychology and Learning Science; Project Director, Wisconsin Center for Education Research
• Daniel Kleinman, Professor of Rural Sociology; Director, Robert and Jean Holtz Center for Science and Technology Studies
• Nancy Mathews, Professor of Environmental Studies and Wildlife Ecology; Director, UW–Madison Institutional Reaccreditation Project
• Anne Miner, Executive Director, Initiative for Studies in Technology Entrepreneurship (INSITE); Professor and Ford Motor Company Distinguished Chair of Management and Human Resources

Panel 2: Administering the Interdisciplinary Campus of the Future

This panel consists of campus leaders representing perspectives on the future of interdisciplinarity in different functions of the university, including fundraising, buildings and grounds, information management, teaching, research, and faculty recruitment and retention. Together they will outline the ways interdisciplinarity impacts the university community and the promises and challenges that lay ahead.

Moderator

Laurie Beth Clark, Vice Provost for Faculty and Staff

Panelists

• Carl E. Gulbrandsen, Managing Director, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF)
• Ronald Kraemer, Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Vice Provost for Information Technology
• Aaron Brower, Professor of Social Work; Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning
• Linda K. Graham, Professor of Botany
• Judith Kornblatt, Professor of Slavic Languages and Literature; Associate Dean for Graduate Education
• Walter Keough, Vice President, University of Wisconsin Foundation
• Alan Fish, Associate Vice Chancellor for Facilities Planning and Management

Panel 3: Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning

If you could design the ultimate interdisciplinary undergraduate curriculum from scratch, what would it be like? This is the question put to the members of this panel. Should undergraduate majors be done away with? What new conceptions of teaching, learning, and advising are needed in our campus of the future? Is there more than ever a need for the well-rounded, liberally-educated, interdisciplinary, student in a global world—or is the rapid pace of change and complexity in science and technology pushing students to obtain increasingly specialized skills earlier in their college career? Panel members will address these and other issues shaping the undergraduate experience of the future.

Moderator

Aaron Brower, Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning

Discussant

John Wiley, Chancellor, University of Wisconsin–Madison

Panelists

• Jolanda Vanderwal Taylor, Associate Professor of Dutch and German
• Basil Tikoff, Associate Professor of Structural Geology and Tectonics
• Leslie Kohlberg, Associate Director, Human Ecology Career Services
• Paul Evans, Director, University Housing

Panel 4: Campus and Community Partnerships

In what way is public/private engagement an interdisciplinary act? What are some of the challenges of finding shared language and common goals in initiatives between the campus and public and private partners? As the boundaries of our campus become less and less defined, UW–Madison will continue to forge new collaborations with industry, agriculture, and government. This is in part a response to the requirements of major interdisciplinary research grants for broader community involvement and impact, which often are driven by different criteria and motivation. A vision of the interdisciplinary university of the future thus requires our fullest attention to how it will impact our partnerships and constituents beyond the campus gates. Each panelist will share a case-study to elaborate on the current and future challenges in developing interdisciplinary modes of public engagement.

Moderator

Peyton Smith, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Extended Programs

Panelists

• Charles Hoslet, Senior Special Assistant to the Chancellor and Managing Director, Office of Corporate Relations
• Barbara Wolfe, Professor of Public Affairs, Economics and Population Health Sciences; Director of the La Follette School of Public Affairs
• Craig Werner, Professor of Afro-American Studies
• Hardin Coleman, Professor of Counseling Psychology; Associate Dean, College of Education
• Ben Miller, Assistant Dean for External Relations, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences
• Steve Petersen, Forest Superintendent, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
• Sue Thering, Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture; Project Coordinator, Green Affordable Housing in Indian Country Initiative

Panel 5: Interdisciplinary ‘Mega-Centers’

Do large, expensive research centers represent the future of interdisciplinarity? What is the reason for their recent increase in numbers on university campuses world wide? Interdisciplinary “mega-centers” pose a unique set of challenges in the areas of governance, funding, staffing, and architecture. Support for these resource intensive projects usually come from a combination of public and private sources. What are the implications for future interdisciplinary research as the private sector becomes more involved? How will researchers in these large buildings interact with the broader campus community and what are the social benefits for the public at-large? We focus on two of UW–Madison’s newest and largest projects to date, the Interdisciplinary Medical Research Center and the Wisconsin Institutes of Discovery.

Panelists

• Donna Paulnock, Professor of Medical Microbiology and Immunology; Associate Dean for Biological Sciences, Graduate School
• Paul DeLuca, Professor of Medical Physics; Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies, College of Medicine & Public Health