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Seahawks Advancing Interdisciplinary Learning (SAIL)

Undergraduate Education and Faculty Affairs

By analyzing and understanding different disciplinary perspectives, students can take a multidimensional approach to creating new knowledge, or solutions within their field of study.

Our five-year Quality Improvement Plan (QEP) focuses on interdisciplinary learning to increase student achievement in three common goals: disciplinary grounding, perspective taking and integration. Titled “Seahawks Advancing Interdisciplinary Learning,” or SAIL, our grant-awarded teams led by top-tier faculty aim to improve students’ ability to think critically about diversity and global issues.

Interdisciplinary learning intentionally incorporates skills and approaches from different fields to generate new insights about pressing global challenges. By engaging in and creating a collaboration between different disciplines, students articulate and analyze different perspectives, acknowledging each discipline’s strengths and limitations and using those cohesively to develop new solutions to complex issues.

Over the next several years, students will have the opportunity to work on a variety of faculty-led projects to engage in SAIL work across colleges and units on UNCW’s campus.

Individual Grants Awarded 2023-2024
  • Health Communication with African Non-Profits: An Integrative, Interdisciplinary Learning Project | Dr. G. Edzordzi Agbozo, English 
  • Traditional Caribbean and Western Conceptions of Health and Illness | Dr. Dorcas Dennis, Philosophy and Religion 
  • Creating a Global Partnership and Interdisciplinary Study Abroad: Biodiversity Conservation in Christmas Island with the Australian Park Service | Dr. Julia Morris, International Studies
  • An Interdisciplinary Artistic Research Experience for Undergraduate Students in Critical Performance Ethnography: From a 3-Credit Course to an Interdisciplinary Peer-Reviewed Publication | Dr. Julie-Ann Scott-Pollock, Communication Studies
  • Improving Coastal Health Through Interdisciplinary Learning | Dr. Jennifer Biddle, Public and International Affairs
Large Team Grants Awarded 2023-2026

Digital Literacy

A large group collaboration across three colleges and Randall Library will look at how to create better digital citizens who can critically think about what they see online. This will include courses such as Technical Writing and Applied Behavioral Technology, along with faculty professional development opportunities.

Student working on a iPad.

End-of-Life Education

Faculty in the Gerontology, Philosophy, Psychology, and Respiratory Therapy departments will take an interdisciplinary approach to end-of-life care and decision-making on campus and within the Wilmington community. They will study community needs and work on community engagement projects.

Photograph of a stethoscope.

Critical AI

Faculty across three colleges will collaborate on examining the impact of artificial intelligence in various disciplines. This will include teaching various courses and hosting an array of events and activities, from AI art exhibits to workshops and presentations.

Hand on a computer mouse.

'The Other' in French and Francophone Studies

Through a small-team grant, faculty from the Department of World Languages will take an interdisciplinary approach to French courses looking at aliens in French works of fiction. The courses include ‘Alien Encounters in French Fiction and Cultures’ and ‘Intro to the Francophone World: Cinema of Africa and its Diasporas.’

Chair in the library.

More Information

Stay engaged with Interdisciplinary Learning! UNCW employees can subscribe for information and updates. (UNCW log-in required)

Contact Director Beverley McGuire and Assistant Director Erica Noles for more information and general inquiries.

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