Faculty collaborations to yield new courses

A proposed class dealing with implications of human population growth and another on aspects of material culture have received $15,000 grants as part of a new teaching initiative at the university.

The Chancellor’s Grants for Collaboration in Teaching aim to expand the curriculum by drawing upon the insights and expertise of senior faculty.

“Human Population Growth: Its Causes and Effects” will bring together faculty in areas such as economics, botany, history of science, zoology and more. Organized by James Pawley, professor of zoology, the course will consider the impact of current population figures and trends, and factors influencing past and present reproductive behavior. Pawley says insights from anthropologists, economists, philosophers and others will be sought for the course, which might be offered as early as spring 2001.

Students enrolled in “Dimensions of Material Culture” will study the creation, meanings, uses and interpretations of the tangible world around us. The class will involve faculty and staff from textiles and design, history, art history, art and more. Organizers Virginia T. Boyd, professor of ETD and Jean B. Lee, associate professor of history, say changing themes in the course will include rituals of pilgrimage, domestic space and artifacts, concepts of style, the body and dress and more.

For more information, visit http://www.wisc.edu/ccae/pga or contact Katherine Sanders, director of Creating a Collaborative Academic Environment, (608) 263-4257; kjsander@facstaff.wisc.edu.