An interdisciplinary team of faculty are developing arts-based workshops with the support of an Innovations in Graduate Education award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The grant provides $499,835 of research funding to the University of Georgia and represents a partnership of campus programs including the UGA Arts Collaborative and the Center for Integrative Conservation Research.

Co-principal investigator and Art faculty member Mark Callahan notes that, "there is a strong interest among students in exploring creative approaches to complex global challenges, including climate change. Building on UGA's strength in the arts and environmental sciences, the NSF grant enables us to better study the impact of the arts on future researchers and leaders."

Based on student feedback and the success of pilot programs supported by the Graduate School and the Willson Center for the Humanities and Arts, a team of researchers from the arts, humanities, and sciences worked together to design activities to train students to think creatively, to collaborate across disciplines, and to work with people with different perspectives, knowledge, and values. The three-year NSF award allows the team to study the effectiveness of the workshops and to generate the knowledge required to move these approaches into the broader community.

Project Team

Nate Nibbelink (Forestry)
Lizzie King (Ecology/Forestry)
Mark Callahan (Art)
Kathryn Roulston (Education)
Brian Haas (Psychology)
Meredith Welch-Devine (Graduate School/Anthropology)
Michael Marshall (Art)
Rebecca Gose (Dance)
Chris Cuomo (Philosophy/Women’s Studies)
Jenna Jambeck (Engineering)
Laurie Fowler (Ecology)