SUBMIT YOUR SESSION PROPOSAL HERE
Now 30 years following the Robert Mapplethorpe exhibition here in Cincinnati, we reflect on the evolving question “What is creative freedom today?” Art and design colleges are forging new pathways in teaching and learning as we adapt to societal disruptions existing both pre and post pandemic. What is Freedom? aims to advance conversations surrounding “freedom in the classroom” on AICAD and other college and university campuses which come from both internal and external constituencies. How do we as educators, institutions, students and, perhaps most importantly as humans, support academic and creative freedom to ensure successful outcomes and enact our values? How are we accountable in setting and monitoring our creative freedom goals?
What is Freedom? seeks to explore and share values, pedagogies, research, challenges and successes, bringing students, faculty, and administrators together in sometimes difficult dialogues regarding institutional climates to develop an inclusive vision for high quality art and design education.
AAC seeks proposals that will explore the symposium’s theme, including:
How students’ stories tell us about the work we need to do;
Strategies for initiating and managing a classroom that promotes risk-taking among faculty and students engaging in difficult dialogues;
How to decolonize the curriculum in a post-pandemic era,
How art and design educators can effectively advocate for freedom and support engaged inclusivity within environments that may have competing priorities or divergent goals;
Defining pedagogical freedom with an emphasis on the critique;
Equitable assessment practices;
How campus leaders can address politically-driven resistance to inclusivity, freedom, and institutional change;
Ways that campuses are transforming to create an intentionally inclusive sense of creative freedom and well-being for all;
Ways to value and affirm the cultural capital of creative freedom for students and what biases or stereotypes may be standing in the way;
Ways that campuses are diversifying their faculty, staff, and administrators to reflect current and emerging student demographics;
and faculty and staff development opportunities that can promote increased intercultural awareness and competencies surrounding the theme of the conference.
Call for Presentations
AAC is accepting the following forms of session proposals:
Individual and small group proposals;
Whole-panel presentations, so a school or, ideally, collaborations across schools, can propose a sustained conversation;
Whole-panel case study presentations from individual schools to specifically highlight how different institutions interpret and manage different issues of freedom in pedagogy and how they plan to continue addressing freedom in the future.
Faculty, students and alumni are encouraged to submit time-based, audio/visual work (experimental videos, animations, motion graphics, narrative films, and/or edited documentation of case studies) that address one or more of the conference themes. This series will be documented and recorded to remain available through our public radio station.
All calls for proposals are due June 1, 2023.