Finding solutions to today’s most consequential societal challenges requires collaboration between disciplines. That mission is the heartbeat of VCU Convergence, a universitywide commitment to crossing boundaries between research, curriculum and experiential learning.
To stoke the interdisciplinary fires, the VCU Convergence Team Planning Grant Program was established and has awarded $10,000 grants for 15 projects comprising nearly 70 faculty members. The unique funding model is reserved for projects of three or more full-time Virginia Commonwealth University faculty from at least two different schools or colleges that focus on problems that defy single-discipline solutions.
“The quality and ambition of these proposals show what is possible when we bring different perspectives together to tackle challenges that no single discipline can solve,” said Andrew Arroyo, Ed.D., senior vice provost of academic affairs for VCU. “By investing in transdisciplinary collaboration today, VCU is shaping the future of problem-driven research and academics.”
The partnerships help catalyze community impacts that tackle “wicked problems.”
“Wicked problems are dynamic,” said Daniel Gutierrez, Ph.D., assistant vice provost for VCU Convergence. “If you take a single-discipline approach to the problem, you may not even notice how it is changing. The causes are interconnected, the boundaries of the problem keep moving and even defining what the problem is depends on where you stand in the system.”
Kate Sicchio, Ph.D., associate professor of kinetic imaging and dance and media technologies, is among the grant recipients. Her project, “Body Intelligence: Examining Computational Algorithms from Dance and Choreography,” is a partnership with Caddie Alford, Ph.D., associate professor of rhetoric and writing, and Frank Faries, Ph.D., assistant professor of philosophy. Together, they will investigate how to inform computational design and digital studies to offer a disruptive alternative to dominant Big Tech AI paradigms that diminish the human experience and, in particular, human bodies. Through workshops, the research will frame perception and movement as integral to how humans think and learn.
