The first Current Topics in Higher Education event of the spring semester took place on Tuesday.
These events allow the community to come together and discuss topics in the larger context of the higher education sector, how the issues may impact Bryn Mawr, and planning for the College’s future. Facilitated by the president’s office, the events draw on the expertise and experiences of a variety of Bryn Mawr community members. The events are meant to be a space where participants freely and safely share their thoughts.
Professor of Political Science Joel Alden Schlosser, Assistant Professor of Computer Science Aline Normoyle, and Associate Professor of Growth and Structure of Cities Min Kyung Lee led a discussion on “The Liberal Arts of the Future.”
Each speaker shared a few of their observations after the event:
"Living lives of purpose requires Bryn Mawr students to develop skills of contemplation, living in community, and self-governance. In all three areas, Bryn Mawr already has historic strengths: as the ‘scholarly sister’ known for its commitment to the life of the mind; as a living, learning community that delights in its beautiful residential campus; and as proudly maintaining the oldest Self-Government Association in the country. The liberal arts education of the future could be stronger by further developing these historic strengths. What if we created Grace Lee Boggs Seminars devoted to contemplation and action that could complement and follow on the present Emily Balch Seminars? What if we further committed to ‘relationship-rich education’ by shifting to more collaborative and team-based learning in our academic work, including senior capstones? And what if we imbued departmental and college governance with robust student participation focused on developing skills of deliberation, persuasion, and responsible decision-making? The seeds of this future liberal arts education already exist; nurturing them in the coming years will assure Bryn Mawr graduates lead the lives of passion and purpose to which they aspire.” – Professor of Political Science Joel Alden Schlosser.
“A challenge of teaching today is balancing pragmatism with idealism. We want to prepare students for the world as it currently is, but we also want students to find purpose and meaning in their lives. The pursuit of both can be in conflict, particularly because our current times can feel chaotic with scarce opportunities and resources. Few jobs are secure, and the job market is changing in ways that are hard to anticipate. There is pressure to focus on the achievements that can be quantified and put on a resume, such as credentials, grades, and awards. A slower approach – e.g., one that makes time for relationships, focuses on process over results, and pursues interests for their own sake – can be a hard sell. There are no guarantees that if you take a slower approach, you can still have material success or security.” – Assistant Professor of Computer Science Aline Normoyle
“As an architectural historian, I focus on place and time, and when thinking about the future of liberal arts, I wanted to consider the context around us and where Bryn Mawr is in geography and chronology. The liberal arts as it is taught at Bryn Mawr is a uniquely U.S. concept that is not focused on a specific discipline but on the interactions and connections made between humanities, sciences, and arts. This model has largely been conceived with the assumption that the US is at the center of the world. Given the current politics, what does the future of liberal arts mean if the US is not at the center of the world? What would it mean for us to start to teach and study as if we were marginal? Could the margins be a space for new possibilities and new ideas?
If we are thinking about what lies ahead of us in the future, we should also think about which temporal framework is. There are multiple to consider—do we think about the future in terms of geological time? So, when the glaciers that receded 13,000 years ago gave us the fertile ground on which Bryn Mawr’s campus now rests: what future is there on that time scale? Or what about institutional time? To think about Bryn Mawr’s founding in 1885 and how it has survived wars and different political administrations; how might that periodization prioritize different values to bring into the future? Or what of technological time, how might the experience of the acceleration of time be different than the actual work of building new technologies? When we think about the future, it would be useful to consider which chronology we are considering and how these temporal layers give us different meanings and trajectories.” – Associate Professor and Chair of Growth and Structure of Cities Min Kyung Lee
The next event in the series will be at noon on Feb. 19 and looks at Public Scholarship and Teaching at Bryn Mawr and Beyond and is led by Professor of Mathematics Victor Donnay, Assistant Professor of Social Work Lisa Young Larance, Associate Professor of Literatures in English Bethany Schneider, Associate Professor of History Stephen Vider, and Assistant Professor of Education Chanelle Wilson.