Creative Discovery Fellows Program

Creative Discovery Fellows Program pages

Asian American & Asian Diaspora Studies 121: History of the Chinese in the U.S.

This course covers the entire history of the Chinese in the U.S., from the Gold Rush period in the mid-l9th century to the present. Since Chinese immigration and exclusion are two continuous processes throughout this history, both will be the focus of the course. The two processes and their interaction with each other also generated considerable political, economic, and cultural dynamism in the settlement and development of the Chinese American community throughout the U.S. Adding to the complexity of the two processes and the community dynamics has been the continuous impact of the...

Instructor Impacts

[The CDF program] is very valuable. We tend to do the same old stuff in our classes—exam, paper, exam, paper, repeat. This only taps into certain sets of skills. While these assignments develop valuable academic skills, students often have much more they can bring to their class experience. For a certain type of student (and teacher!) who feel constrained by the limits of traditional assignments and classroom protocols, the [Creative Discovery Fellows] program is quite freeing in providing institutional support for trying something new.

As the above instructor outlined, the...

International and Area Studies/Engineering 157AC: “Engineering, Environment, and Society”

About the Course Assignment

IAS/E 157AC: “Engineering, Environment, and Society” forefronts the political and social concerns that are of decentered in favor of the technical aspects of environmental engineering. Originally developed as part of the American Cultures Engaged Scholarship (ACES) program, the project developed for IAS/E 157AC allowed for students to explore alternative ways of centering the knowledge produced in the communities...

Chicano Studies 159AC: “Mexican and Central American Migration”

About the Course Assignment

Chicano Studies 159AC: “Mexican and Central American Migration” attempts to answer the following questions: why does Mexican and Central American immigration continue to be the target of anti-immigrant hysteria and unjust immigration policy? And how do Mexican and Central American immigrant communities navigate, contest, and challenge these policies in their everyday lives? In empowering students to seek answers to these questions, the projects for this class included a group project where students could create...

Program Model

Support for Both Instructors and Students

The Creative Discovery Fellows program starts from the understanding that instructors and students need support to experiment and be innovative, and that providing this support not only leads to impactful learning but helps level the playing field in terms of who gets to be creative and whose stories get told.

Our model involves working closely with faculty cohorts to help them design effective creative assignments and providing near-peer support for students to complete those assignments.

Faculty...

Sociology 130AC: "Social Inequalities: American Cultures"

About the Course Assignment

Sociology 130AC: “Social Inequalities – American Cultures”, is a course that explores the causes and consequences of social inequalities in the United States. This is a large lecture course of nearly 200 students. For the creative discovery assignment, Reed recruited a small group of students from the class to join the "Soc. 130 Creative Team". This group of seven students were then tasked with developing a creative project that would connect to an assignment undertaken by all students in the class--the...