Title of the proposal
Students Working in Interdisciplinary Groups (SWIG): An Interdisciplinary Education Model Using Media Literacy and Peer-Led Learning
Bio
Kathleen Wentrack, Ph.D., Associate Professor
Kathleen Wentrack, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Art History in the Department of Art & Design at Queensborough Community College (CUNY). She holds a Master’s degree from the University of Amsterdam and a Ph.D. from the Graduate Center CUNY. Kathleen co-leads the Collaborative Assignments and Projects High Impact Practice at Queensborough. Kathleen’s most recent publications include “Female Sexuality in Performance and Film: Erotic, Political, Controllable? The Contested Female Body in the Work of Carolee Schneemann and VALIE EXPORT,” May 2014 in Konsthistorisk Tidskrift and she is editing an anthology of women’s art collectives entitled Collaboration, Empowerment, Change: Women’s Art Collectives.
Alisa Cercone is a Lecturer in the English Department at Queensborough Community College where she teaches courses in composition, literature, and journalism. She holds a Master’s degree in Secondary Education and a Master’s degree in English Literature from Fordham University. Alisa serves as a faculty co-advisor for Communiqué, the campus newspaper, and also co-leads the Collaborative Assignments and Projects team of faculty. Alisa additional High Impact Practices (HIP) activity includes the Common Read. She presented her work at the 2014 National Council for Teachers of English annual conference and actively pursues conferences that highlight innovation, collaboration, and interdisciplinary work.
Jillian Abbott is an adjunct lecturer in English at Queensborough Community College and York college, both colleges of the City University of New York. She was a Research Associate with the Research Foundation of CUNY from fall 2011 until fall 2015. She is currently working as a consultant, writing case studies of digital media start-ups for the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. Jillian’s short stories and essays, features and other journalistic works have won awards and been published in the US, Australia, UK, Ireland and India.
Barbara L. Lynch is a lecturer at Queensborough Community College, City University of New York. She has just completed a Certificate Program as a Certified Listening Professional. She is also working on her dissertation looking at media literacy and participatory learning. As a member of the Speech Communication and Theatre Arts department, she has used SWIG projects in her speech classes for the past 6 years. She has presented on SWIG and listening in the classroom at many local and national conventions.
General description of the initiative or project
This panel explores Queensborough Community College’s Students Working in Interdisciplinary Groups (SWIG) which falls under one of AAC&U identified High Impact Practices called Collaborative Assignments and Projects. Queensborough, located in the most diverse county in the United States, serves a broad range of students that includes a 29% Hispanic population. Thus far, the data indicates that students involved with SWIG classes demonstrate higher retention, improved graduation rates, and a higher transfer especially among Hispanic students.