Artsci Students Demonstrate the Art of Inquiry Within and Across Disciplines

One of the guiding objectives of the Arts & Science Program is to “foster the art of scholarly inquiry into issues of public concern.” The end of the 2022-23 academic year offered opportunities for students across the program to demonstrate and showcase their growing inquiry skills in a range of courses and contexts.

As per usual, for example, March saw Level IV students presenting the thesis and individual study projects on which they were working, under the supervision of faculty members from across campus, through ARTSSCI 4A06/4C06. The fascinating work shared was as diverse as the Artsci community and its members’ wide-ranging interests. Some students wrote research-informed novellas, short stories, screenplays, or performance pieces. Others conducted studies of topics ranging from water policies in Hamilton and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy to drug education in the 20th Century and trans histories in horror films. Others still engaged in music-related research-creation projects, including the development of compositions, and a creative investigation of the musical possibilities of the voice. For further information about the interesting examples of scholarly inquiry Artsci students carry out through the thesis and individual study courses, visit the ARTSSCI 4A06/4C06 page on this website.

Meanwhile, in ARTSSCI 2D06 / Physics, students were completing a final project that required them to demonstrate and communicate their knowledge of physics concepts. As just one example, Victoria Bui, Soraya Lee Wo, and Aliana Niezova created a video about the speed of light entitled “The Marshmallow Dream,” for which they were awarded the class ‘Artsci Oscar.’

April also saw Level I students sharing the results of the term 2 ‘capstone projects’ they completed within ARTSSCI 1C06 / Global Challenges Inquiry. During lively in-class poster presentations, students engaged in discussion with their instructors and peers about the self-directed inquiry projects they developed over the term, which took up issues relevant to social injustice, inequity, and other contemporary challenges. A small selection of their poster topics (shared with students’ permission) can be found below.

For other examples of inquiry in and across the Arts & Science curriculum, see the Courses page, which includes outlines for Arts & Science courses, including the wide range of ‘upper-level Inquiry’ offerings.

Note: this story was posted in September 2023, but backdated to reflect the academic term it discusses.

 Education,  Students