Learning. Life. Work. Conference

Intersection | Integration

A track led by the California Institute of Integral Studies | CIIS

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Keywords

A burgeoning intersection between art practice (art/design practice) and the humanities is emerging, as are new ways for learners to develop as scholars and artists. Hybridity is reaching across disciplines and between forms. Contemporary art/design is drawing from psychological perspectives of the self and critical engagement with history, culture, spirituality, and politics. Scholarship is increasingly seeking ways to be able to communicate complex perspectives, creatively and inclusively.

Integration allows for re-defining courses of study, creative dissertations, joint or dual programs, school-wide courses, interdisciplinary journals, media, conferences, and the chance for art/design learners to further their capacities by working with scholars across the disciplines. Access to new (or additional) knowledge can lead to more informed choices and a deeper relationship to the content in the work. Integration allows learners to broaden their skill sets, gain more critical and creative capacity, engage in alternative and innovative approaches and forms of knowledge. It can also help them build careers as professionals and practitioners.

More and more arts and humanities programs are taking on interdisciplinary approaches and are looking for ways to bring together art-making, academic content, and the issues of our time. In Europe and the USA, programs are linking approaches/methods in art, the humanities and social and natural sciences. The hope is to resist fragmentation—and create common language, experiences, actions to take on world concerns: Ways to work in varied contexts (social, political, ecological, spiritual), in urban, rural, or technology-designed environments or as part of social action or laboratories or research projects.

This key theme will be explored across strands at the conference.

Part of the conference: Learning. Life. Work.

CISS

California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) is an accredited university that strives to embody spirit, intellect, and wisdom in service to individuals, communities, and the earth. CIIS expands the boundaries of traditional degree programs with transdisciplinary, cross-cultural, and applied studies utilizing face-to-face, hybrid, and online pedagogical approaches. Offering a personal learning environment and supportive community, CIIS provides an excellent multifaceted education for people committed to transforming themselves, others, and the world.

Integral Education

Integral studies are a response to the growing need to synthesize the fragmentary aspects of contemporary thought and culture into a meaningful whole. The integral outlook, envisioned by the founders of CIIS as embodying a creative synthesis of the highest values of East and West, has grown to encompass the study of traditions and experience from around the globe. Integral studies at CIIS encompass all aspects of learning: the intellectual, the experiential and the applied.

Providing an integral education for a changing world, the Institute creates and integrates knowledge beyond the confines of traditional academic disciplines. CIIS values cultural diversity, multiple ways of knowing, spirituality, a sense of community, emancipatory ideals, and ecological sustainability, developing a reflective and innovative learning community. In exploring the interplay of mind, body, and spirit, integral education connects the spiritual and practical dimensions of intellectual life. The integration of the wisdom traditions presents an evolution of consciousness that has never been more relevant and crucial than it is today.

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Image: Photo by Ragnar Vorel