CGU Transdisciplinary Studies Program

PSA: We have, unfortunately, had to cancel TNDY 407X (Leading Change) with President Len Jessup for the upcoming Fall semester. For other class options, please follow the link on our About page for the Fall 2021 course schedule.

Please join us on June 24th for the 2nd Inequality Transdisciplinary Research Symposium presented in tandem with the Inequality and Policy Research Center. For more information and the signup link, click the link on our about page!

Our newest episode of Sharing Air is live, featuring Dean Lori Anne Ferrell and Andy Vosko in conversation with Kenneth Wolf. They are discussing "translating human experience along with words" and how the past informs our present. Check it out by following the link on our about page!

Meet Rebecca Holman Williams, our TNDY Teaching Fellow.

On her favorite TNDY project she's worked on so far: "My favorite projects are tied between the TA training that I've developed and facilitated over the past few years, as well as the Association for Interdisciplinary Studies conference in Amsterdam that Andy and I spoke at in October 2019."

On her own research interests: "They involve collaborative creativity, emergence, dialogic pedagogy, and social-emotional aspects of learning."

Her most recent Netflix binge: "Crime Scene: Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel, true crime j***y over here!"

Our newest episode of Sharing Air is live, covering topics such as "the surprising way in which music is being used to help heal from Covid-19." Check it out by following the link in our bio!

We will be highlighting our Fall courses over the coming weeks. Check out TNDY 408K, taught by M. Gloria González-Morales, which covers "diverse perspectives from biology, sexuality, education, social justice, gender studies, psychology, management, history, sociology, art and cultural studies, among others." For more information on the course, click the link on our About page.

It is our pleasure to announce the TNDY Dissertation Award Fellows for 2021 – 2022. Full descriptions of the dissertation projects from the six recipients can be found through the link on our About page. This is an impressive set of projects and illustrates that high-quality, high-impact research is being conducted across all disciplines here at CGU. Congratulations to the recipients!

Registration is now open! Join us for CGU’s Realizing Equity: A Transdisciplinary Approach to Justice & Transformative Research Symposium on Saturday, May 1, 2021 at 9:00 AM PDT.

Through a collaboration between the THRIVE Program, Transdisciplinary Studies, and the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee, CGU invites students to attend the Symposium showcasing research for positive social transformation from CGU students committed to scholarship in equity and justice.

CGU invites all students from across the academic disciplines to attend the Symposium to learn more about how your peers are advancing research that centers equity and justice, dialogue with colleagues, and support your peers as they develop their research and presentation skills for future academic conferences. There is no cost to attend.

Reserve your seat to attend the Symposium by signing up using the link in bio.

Friendly reminder: class registration for the Fall 2021 semester opened yesterday. We have 9 class offerings and for more of a deep dive into their descriptions, feel free to follow the link in our bio. We will be highlighting some in-depth over the coming weeks so keep an eye out for that!

The last summer course we're highlighting is TNDY 407G (Integrating Arts and Sciences) taught by Andrew Vosko, associate provost and director of the Transdisciplinary Studies program. For more information on his background, check out our last post! Many perspectives will be covered in this Module 2 course, including those from "neuroscience, education, psychology, and the fine and performing arts." To sign up for the class, please follow the link in our bio!

Have you been wondering who the TNDY team actually is? Well, now is the time to meet everyone! Over the next couple of months, we will be introducing a member of our team through social media! You can find further information about them on our "About" page through the link in our bio!

Meet Andrew Vosko, Associate Provost and Director of Transdisciplinary Studies.

Discussing what makes TDNY at CGU so special:
"Beyond just a single focus, the TNDY program at CGU supports a culture of transdisciplinarity that is holistic, authentic, and creative. CGU is the only university in the country that treats transdisciplinarity as a core value and as a shared expectation of our scholars. We have conversations, courses, projects and plans that break down the traditional silos of academia and connect the university back to the community. 'Transdisciplinary' is in our DNA—we take it quite seriously."

His favorite TNDY project:
"It’s actually the podcast, Sharing Air, that I co-host with Lori Anne Ferrell from the School of Arts and Humanities. Lori Anne and I began talking about creating something in early 2020 when we had wanted to offer something in the medical humanities space—and that’s when COVID-19 hit. We decided to start a podcast with the help of marketing and communications, which had the intention of framing, in an accessible way, the complexity of the pandemic itself and all that it touches, by bringing in guests from throughout our community. We connect arts, humanities, sciences, society and individual experiences—all to illustrate the richness of human experience. I love this project."

His favorite spot on campus:
"The backyard of the Transdisciplinary/PFF House"

In case you missed it, unfortunately, our Akko summer course has been canceled due to COVID-19 International travel restrictions. If you have any questions, feel free to message us. And if you need a TNDY course this summer, we still have openings for many of our other courses!

The next course we're highlighting is TNDY 408G (Cultural Competence) taught by Robert Klitgaard, a former CGU President who served from 2005-2009. This course will discuss "living and working in multicultural settings," especially with "cultural diversity" in mind. The class will take place fully online during Module 1, on Mondays and Wednesdays from 12:20-3:10pm. To sign up, please follow the link in our bio!

Over the next couple of weeks, we'll be highlighting courses still open for the summer and fall sessions. For more information or to register, please follow the link in our bio!

For context on the course, here's an excerpt from the course description: "By the end of the course, students will understand how the scientific method can be effectively implemented to answer research questions, even when theories and methods from disparate traditions collide. And, equally important, students will understand the advantages and disadvantages of the scientific enterprise, that science works, and that there is not a single-discipline scientific dictatorship to deploy progress and social justice in the world."

Last call for submissions for our TNDY Dissertation Awards! Feel free to message us with any questions. Or if you're ready to apply, follow the link in our bio! We can't wait to read your work!

PSA: The deadline to apply for our Research Symposium has been extended to Monday, March 29th! Make sure to apply!

Submit your proposals for our Research Symposium no later than March 22! You can find the link to submit on our website

Our next episode of Sharing Air is live! The conversation covers everything from time loops ala Groundhog Day to Edgar Allan Poe's gothic story "The Tell-Tale Heart." We are also joined by Dr. Gloria Gonzalez as she discusses the highs & lows of working from home. To access it, click the link in our bio.

Registration for a conversation with Professor James Wright from Florida State University has opened. To hear about his own journey as a person of color in the academy, register using the link in our bio.

Kicking off our second season, Sharing Air dives right into The Pandemic Experience through our favorite respiratory art—poetry. A special guest also discusses empathy, ownership of storytelling, and moving forward amid challenges. For information about a transcript, DM us!

We'd like to announce that the TNDY program will be opening the application process for our Dissertation Awards come February 1st. For information on eligibility and required materials, please follow the link on our About page!

Happy first day of Spring 2021 classes! We are so excited to welcome all of our TNDY students back. Please keep in contact with your research throughout the semester 😀

The TNDY program would like to highlight one last class for this Spring. But rather than describe it ourselves, here are some words from the professor, Andrew Vosko. Follow the link in our bio for information on registration.

Thank you all for a fantastic semester and we will see you in January! Stay healthy, CGU!!

Our next course highlight is TNDY 408E: Mechanisms That Rule Our Social Universe! Here are only a couple of the fantastic texts you'd have the chance to read for the upcoming semester. For more information, follow the link on our About page.

“It is definitely a launching pad to continue collaborating with professionals with different disciplines. I look forward to more T-courses.” -Anonymous TNDY 407x student

If you’d like to experience the course Leading Change for yourself, consider signing up. It is an online, 2 unit course, starting in Module 2! Click the link on our About page to read a full course description. 📚

Here are a couple of the courses we are offering in the Spring semester. Over the next couple of days, we will be highlighting specific options and hearing from the professors teaching them. Check back in to get a broader view of the upcoming transdisciplinary courses! For more information, please follow the link on our About page.

TNDY 305 – Global Leadership

Register for our new course with Senior Drucker Fellow, Ryan Patel

We are now offering a new transdisciplinary course with Drucker School of Management Senior Fellow, Ryan Patel, a world-renowned go-to authority on global business, political economy and corporate governance. Global Leadership will explore what global leadership means and how it is practiced in today’s business world and beyond.

TNDY 305 – Global Leadership
Module 2, Online, Asynchronous, Saturday 10:00 – 12:00PM, with two additional online synchronous meetings on Saturday 11/14 & 12/12, 10:00AM – 12:00PM
2 – Units

We created this learning experience for students to boundary cross outside their native academic environments. This course aims to help students by addressing important trends in the changing global landscape, cultivating global mindsets to help make strategic decisions, and preparing individuals to lead organizations in our interconnected world.

Course learning outcomes:

Diagnose the effective and ineffective ways companies look to scale globally
Provide the necessary tools and foundation for each individual in building a global mindset
Highlight the different approaches and ways to be more inclusive of the interconnectivity that global leadership provides from/through all industries
Textbooks or other required resources (external): none

Audience: CGU students interested in global markets, inclusive of Drucker audiences but not limited to business. As an elective for Drucker degrees (leadership), public health, transdisciplinary studies, CISAT.

TNDY Dissertation Award Fellows, 2020 - 2021

It is our pleasure to announce the TNDY Dissertation Award Fellows for 2020-2021. Please join us in congratulating the following students whose work stands out in its academic rigor, sophistication, innovation, and contribution to transdisciplinary scholarship.



Claremont Graduate University Claremont Graduate University School of Arts and Humanities CGU Graduate Student CouncilClaremont Graduate University Alumni School of Community and Global Health (Claremont Graduate University)

Sharing Air - CGU Podcasts

𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐀𝐢𝐫 𝐄𝐩𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐝𝐞 𝟔: 𝐀𝐭𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐩𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐜 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞

If we have learned anything over the course of this podcast so far, it is that the concept of a disruptive ‘new normal’ is anything but new and certainly not normal. Instead, we trade in this idea for an exploration of allostasis: a process of how we internally adapt to new, long-term, external pressures. This week, our guest Heather Campbell, Professor in the Department of Politics and Government, helps frame our conversation around the push-pull forces determining policy in the US. We also discuss COVID-19 as a stress test for our short-term planning, de-centralized services, and environmental (in-)justice. As the pandemic defines more clearly the pressures to which we have no choice but to adapt, we find ourselves compelled to look inward, imagining a more equitable future.



Link: https://info.cgu.edu/podcasts/sharing-air-podcast/

School of Community and Global Health (Claremont Graduate University) Claremont Graduate University Drucker School of Management Claremont Graduate University School of Arts and Humanities CGU Graduate Student Council

Sharing Air - CGU Podcasts Sharing Air is a podcast that takes a transdisciplinary look at how we connect, even in isolation. In each episode, we explore our complex relationship with the essential yet precarious medium of air as we share stories that bring us together in these times of distance and transformation.

𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗔𝗶𝗿 𝗘𝗽𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗱𝗲 #𝟱: Spirits in the Material World

Whether we look squarely into the future with the optimism of science, or we fix our gaze on the past to find wisdom in human experience, uncertain times inspire us to create, creating elegant and memorable theories, essays, and poems. This week, we cast our eyes backward to Early Modern Europe (1500-1750) in order to (re)connect the history of science and philosophy, the mind-body divide, and the mystery of the soul to our current realities of living (and not living) through the COVID-19 pandemic. Our guest, CGU’s Provost and Professor Patricia Easton, helps us link the teachings of Rene Descartes to the works of another, equally famous seventeenth century weaver of words and ideas, John Donne—and, in so doing, allows us to connect their remarkably similar outlooks to those of another transformative, transdisciplinary, and creative era: the present day.

link: https://info.cgu.edu/podcasts/sharing-air-podcast/



School of Community and Global Health (Claremont Graduate University) Claremont Graduate University Drucker School of Management CGU Graduate Student Council CGU Student Life, Diversity and Leadership Claremont Graduate University School of Arts and Humanities

Are you looking for a cool summer course?
Check out President Jessup and Jennifer Villalobos’ (DBOS) course on change management!
TNDY 407X - Leading Change

Instructor: Len Jessup and Jennifer Villalobos
Online, Module 2 (07/06 - 08/22); Day/Time: Wednesday’s 3pm - 5:50pm
2 Unit

Link: https://mycampus.cgu.edu/web/transdisciplinary/courses#tndy407x-leadingchange

The world is changing at an exponential rate. As it does, your ability to adapt and manage change not only sustains your employability but allows you to have a positive impact on your work and your life! This course will provide tools on how to effectively influence change by understanding change from an interdisciplinary lens, developing a ‘change mindset’ and leading yourself on a change journey.


Claremont Graduate University
CGU Graduate Student Council Drucker School of ManagementClaremont Graduate University School of Arts and Humanities School of Community and Global Health (Claremont Graduate University).cgu Len Jessupjessup

Interested in Social Networks, Film and Religious History, or Law and Economics? Check out the TNDY Fall 2020 courses!

https://mycampus.cgu.edu/web/transdisciplinary/courses/



CGU Graduate Student Council Claremont Graduate University