Iowa State will host 225 participants from across the United States, Europe and the Middle East for the 2014 national conference of the Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities (a2ru). The conference will allow faculty and others doing innovative work at the edges -- where disciplines meet and overlap -- to share tools, research, creative work and networks. "Edge Effects" will be Nov. 5 - 8 in the Memorial Union, ISU Library and College of Design.
Design dean Luis Rico-Gutierrez helped found a2ru, a partnership of 30 institutions that are committed to supporting arts-integrative interdisciplinary research, curricula, programs and creative practice among the arts, sciences and other disciplines.
Broad topics during the conference include:
- Valuing creativity
- Crossdisciplinary divides in research institutions
- Platforms for exchange between the arts and sciences
- Teaching at the intersection of music and design
- Integrating computer science and the performing arts
- Using creativity to cultivate compassion
- Immersive and interactive technology in the preservation and engagement of built cultural heritage, which involves the cultural history in buildings and structures
- Funding and forming new interdisciplinary collaborations
- Communicating STEM through theater
- Interdisciplinary arts, experiential learning and community engagement
ISU activities
Several Iowa State faculty members will give presentations at the conference. President Steven Leath and senior vice president and provost Jonathan Wickert will make remarks.
Other conference activities include a:
- Performance of a dramatic collaboration by two Iowa State faculty members
- Juried exhibition of work by Design students
- Tour of the College of Engineering's Wind Simulation Testing Laboratory
- Performance of electroacoustic and visual music from Iowa State's Lipa Festival of Contemporary Music
See the full schedule.
