Interseminars cohort at the 2022 summer intensive.
Graduate fellows D. Nicole Campbell and Toyosi Tejumade-Morgan.
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By Mariana Seda
A few years ago, the Humanities Research Institute (HRI) received a $2 million grant from the Mellon Foundation to support interdisciplinary education at the University of Illinois. With this funding, HRI launched the Interseminars Initiative in 2022, with a first-of-its-kind cohort of nine graduate fellows and three faculty conveners (with overwhelming representation from our college) tasked with reimagining graduate research and education. Their theme, “Imagining Otherwise: Speculation in the Americas,” encouraged the group to critically investigate the world through speculative theory and practice in art and activism in order to inspire scholarly and creative inquiry about crises like climate change and systemic racism.
Under the guidance of faculty conveners Patrick Earl Hammie and Jorge Lucero (both professors of art & design) and Josue David Cisneros (professor of communication), the fellows embarked on an 18-month journey of exploration and discovery alongside play and creation. The first course, “Interdisciplinary Methods,” set the tone by establishing a collaborative and non-hierarchical venture that sprouted student-driven curricular innovation and projects blending the arts and humanities into a rich interrogation of ideas.
“Oftentimes, there is a lack of agency where graduate students feel like they are just moving through a curriculum or professionalization program,” said Cisneros when interviewed on the Critical Futures podcast. “This curriculum is more reciprocal. We are sharing how we navigate these systems in higher ed, and students are sharing experiences that help enrich these conversations.”
Graduate fellows D. Nicole Campbell and Toyosi Tejumade-Morgan.
A fellow rearranges elements of a syllabus the students and faculty cocreated for the two Interseminar courses taught during 2022–23 school year.
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To best support this work, the project provided full funding for the fellows and released the faculty from heavy course loads for the 18-month period, allowing plenty of space for participants to focus on the work without the strains of teaching or serving as research assistants elsewhere.
“At the root of the project was also an effort to prioritize knowledge and participants coming from underrepresented backgrounds,” explained Hammie. “It was a call to co-curate and develop a space that would center and celebrate scholars, writers, and experiences that are too few in graduate education.”
The project also aims to challenge how graduate programs often firmly situate students in their disciplines. By centering interdisciplinarity, participants could think through fresh ways to explore ideas and research questions, while also challenging the traditional confines of a graduate education. In the spirit of radical inclusion, the fellows were given the opportunity to design, build, and steward their own education.
“Part of this process was getting a feel for all of the resources and then asking ourselves what we want to do with this,” said Lucero. What could a graduate education be if you had this amount of time and resources, this small of a cohort, and the permission to focus on this? A lot of the time the first thing you need is permission.”
A fellow rearranges elements of a syllabus the students and faculty cocreated for the two Interseminar courses taught during 2022–23 school year.
College of Education PhD student and graduate fellow María B. Serrano-Abreu.
conclusion
Now, two years later, the project is in its third and final cohort with a new theme. But the lasting vestiges of the inaugural group persist in the futures of all participating members and their journeys through and beyond higher education.
The group’s culminating project led to a two-day Interseminars Symposium packed with research presented as art installations, film screenings, and live performances, and also a published book. Somewhat of a palimpsest of past, present, and future thought, this text shares a glimpse into the participant’s speculations on how scholarly work can and will continue to be brought forth by voices underrepresented in academia.
“They are a really dynamic and robust group of fellows early in their coursework,” said Hammie. “The rich potential of where they could go was so wide open. The kinds of discourse that we engaged in became the root of so many of their ideas for their theses and dissertations. We hope that these mentoring opportunities with us, their graduate peers, and guest speakers we’ve connected with will continue to grow these scholars in the coming years.”
The inaugural cohort’s graduate fellows were Kofi Bazzell-Smith (Art & Design), D. Nicole Campbell (Communication), Daniela Morales Fredes (Urban & Regional Planning), Adanya Gilmore (Dance), Beatriz Jiménez (Spanish and Portuguese), Ramón (Ray) Martinez (Spanish and Portuguese), Emerson Parker Pehl (English), María B. Serrano-Abreu (Educational Psychology), and Toyosi Tejumade-Morgan (Theatre). Listen to the full Critical Futures podcast episode with host Amber Johnson at The Institute for Healing Justice & Equity: “The Future of Graduate Education.” Browse the cohort’s book online.
College of Education PhD student and graduate fellow María B. Serrano-Abreu.
Interseminars steering committee chair Siobhan Somerville (speaking) along with faculty and fellows at the group’s culminating event.