Seed Grants for Cooperative Projects: Teaching
To encourage cooperative or interdisciplinary teaching ventures, the Institute invites applications from teams of faculty sharing mutual interests. Projects may involve faculty at other universities. Interested faculty must consult with the director prior to submitting the application. These applications will compete in the initiatives appropriate to their content.
Special Initiative. Linked Courses for Upper-Class Students:This initiative is co-sponsored by ISLA and the Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies.Faculty are invited to work to develop paired courses that create a more integrated learning environment and encourage groups of students to engage one another outside of the classroom. Linked Courses are defined as two courses, in different departments, that are taught in the same semester and meet in common at regular intervals during the semester. The opportunities for cross-pollination between the two courses can be fostered by sharing reading assignments, the visit of a guest lecturer who addresses issues of mutual interest in a public lecture or a special seminar for students of both courses. Courses could be conjoined in various ways: (1) by sharing an overarching historical focus (such as the Medieval period or the fin de siècle 1890s); (2) by sharing a geographical focus (such as Eastern Europe or Francophone Africa); or (3) by sharing a topical focus (such as globalization or perspectives on childhood). This award is not for team-taught courses.
Materials grants of $3,000 will be given to each faculty member working in a pair to defray costs of course development and materials. A separate account of $2,000 will be set up to facilitate the contribution of a guest speaker, to cover course materials for the visit, and pay for an honorarium, lodgings, and meals for a two-day visit. Associate Dean Stuart Greene of Undergraduate Studies will help faculty members think through the logistical issues that will arise in developing these paired offerings. Faculty members are requested to submit a copy of their preliminary proposal to Dean Greene and to set up a meeting to finalize the cooperation between departments before the final proposal is submitted. Consistent with the Provost’s Challenge, priority will be given to linked courses that have as their connection some aspect central to Catholic identity. Linked courses specifically tied to Catholicism should help reinforce our institutional identity while also supporting a welcome innovation in student learning. (Also see Course Development Grants to Enhance Notre Dame as a Catholic University: Undergraduate and Graduate Courses).