Artscis Attend National Conference on Interdisciplinary Education

An energetic group of ten Arts & Science students travelled to the University of Waterloo 29-31 Jan. 2016 to take part in the annual “Combining Two Cultures” (C2C) conference on interdisciplinary education. Led by third-year students Mythili Nair and Spencer Williams, the McMaster delegation also included Artsci students Madeleine Baker, Amy Chen, Keerthi Manimaran, Emma Mulholland, Stephen Officer, Anastasia Smolina, Alison St. Pierre, and Cassie Wojcik, along with several of their counterparts from the iSci Program. Emma, Keerthi, and Stephen assumed additional responsibilities as working group leaders.

A national undergraduate conference on interdisciplinary education, “Combining Two Cultures” (C2C) began as an initiative of McMaster’s Arts & Science students, who held the inaugural conference 23-24 January 2010. Hosted this year by University of Waterloo’s Knowledge Integration program, the event opened with a video message from Chris Hadfield, featured several keynote speakers, and promoted lively interactions among students. New in 2016 was a special panel discussion that included secondary school students who are interested in applying to interdisciplinary programs.

When the Artsci grads who launched “Combining Two Cultures” return in 2016-17 to celebrate the 35^th anniversary of the Arts & Science Program, they will have another reason to celebrate: in 2017, C2C returns to McMaster!Planning for the hosting of next year’s conference will soon be underway.