The 5^th Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching Conference will take place on the 2^nd of April 2020 at the University of Warwick. It will explore a variety of issues in the theme of 'Interdisciplinarity: Learning from Each Other'.

This year’s conference theme asks participants to consider the elements of collaboration, co-construction of knowledge and practice that underpin the interdisciplinary teaching and learning experiences of students and teachers.

Read more about it and submit your abstract here.

Dr Elena Riva has been awarded funding by the Warwick Innovation Fund (£18,831) for creating the Warwick open-access online module "Understanding Wellbeing”, based on her current in-classroom module. She will work in collaboration with Dr Kathryn Woods (Director of Student Experience for the Faculty of Arts) and Kerry Pinny (Senior AcademicTechnologist, IT Services), leading a wider cross-institutional team of staff and students for the development of the online module.

Funded by WIHEA, Dr Elena Riva together with Dr Rebecca Freeman and a group of Undergraduate and Postgraduate students have embedded interdisciplinary opportunities for students during Welcome Week 2019.

IATL is currently recruiting two student Co-creation Officers. The role will involve working within IATL to support the existing team and to develop the work of the department. Co-creation Officers will champion IATL and its activities at modules fairs, other events and in smaller groups. As well as participating with IATL’s core functions – such as assessing funding applications – the Officers will be proactive in identifying opportunities to develop IATL’s work both within the department and the wider University. The successful students will engage with the wide scope of this role to make a positive difference to teaching, learning and the Warwick community by working with students, staff and other stakeholders. 

The Co-creation Officers will be current students, will be paid and will work with us from around October 2019 to August 2020 with the possibility for extension into the following academic year for students who remain enrolled. 

For further information and to apply, visit the UniTemps website: https://www.unitemps.com/Search/JobDetails/18807841

In this Masterclass on Wellbeing Pedagogies and Strategies, our own Dr Elena Riva will share her understanding and ideas about how to foster positive Wellbeing in the Teaching and Learning environment for both students and staff. These will be drawn from her pedagogic research about students’ Wellbeing in educational settings as well as practice, including her experience of devising and delivering the module ‘Understanding Wellbeing’.

Over the summer, IATL has moved from 1^st floor Senate House, to 2^nd floor Senate house.

Follow the stairs to the top floor and you will find us on your right hand side..

Our new general office number is SH2.01. Come by and say hello!

You can find the new offices for all of our staff by clicking this news item.

"IATL’s funding was integral in my show’s success. My show ‘an evening with verse writer’ is a poetry play fused with music and art.

The funding allowed me to support student artists within university and beyond. Shown in the Coventry Shop Front Theatre, ‘ an evening with verse writer ‘ successfully opened a space for honest conversations.

It also won an Artistic Development Award and has now been commissioned for 2 nights - October 2 and October 3 in the Warwick Arts Centre.

Members of the teaching team of IATL’s Science of Music module, including Dr Oksana Trushkevych, Dr Gavin Bell, Dr Sue Burrows, Tim Cunningham and the Coull Quartet, gave a talk and musical performance at the Guildhall in Coventry on the opening day of the British Science Festival. IATL’s tutors explained in their talk how sound waves are made, how they travel through the air and how they’re perceived, referencing their teaching on the Science of Music module and research in Ultrasound.

In August a group of educators and learners gathered from across the world to attend the annual Digital Pedagogy Lab at the University of Mary Washington, Virginia. IATL’s Senior Teaching Fellows, Naomi de la Tour and Elena Riva co-taught a 5 day course, Education, Agency and Change, which was grounded in contemplative critical pedagogy. The group of 17 worked together to co-create a collegiate, reflective and critical space in which we sought to support each other in asking questions of our assumptions, experiences and practices as educators and the systems in which we work. Naomi was present in Virginia, with Elena co-teaching the group remotely over zoom and other technologies. They found this an opportunity for asking questions about the nature of online learning, the possibilities and challenges for building community and inclusion in online spaces, and the ways in which education can be reimagined and enacted.

The seminar is open to all University of Warwick students. Registered students will receive a certificate of participation. Places are limited. Please register to secure a place here.

This is the second of two interdisciplinary pilot seminars that draws its inspiration from the Warwick-based online peer-reviewed journal called Feminist Dissent. The module’s focus is to develop an understanding of a worldwide proliferation of fundamentalist religious movements and the global rise of conservative and racist populist movements taking place in the context of the ongoing crises of capitalism and resources.