Fall 2023


TNDY 310 – Communication & Collaboration in Transdisciplinary Work

Instructor(s): Andrew Vosko, Associate Provost and Director of Transdisciplinary Studies, and Rebecca Holman Williams, Adjunct Professor, Transdisciplinary Studies Program
Units: 2
Instruction Mode: Hybrid, Intensive
Section: 1
Session: Module 1
Schedule: (see table below)

Hybrid, Intensive Session Schedule
Session Date Time Instruction Mode
Session 01 08/24 09:00 – 11:50AM In-person
Session 02 08/24 06:00 – 7:50PM In-Person
Session 03 08/25 09:00 – 11:50AM In-Person
Session 04 08/26 09:00 – 11:50AM In-Person
Session 05 09/12 05:00 – 6:00PM Online (Synchronous)
Session 06 09/22 09:00 – 11:50AM In-Person
Asynchronous Component 08/24 – 09/22 6 Hours Online (Asynchronous)

This course examines key principles and approaches for effective transdisciplinary teamwork and professional practice. Students will engage in experiential team-based learning to explore challenges and strategies for collaboration and communication in working across disciplines and with diverse stakeholders.

Key Concepts: Communication; Collaboration; Team Science Principles; Boundary Crossing


TNDY 407X – Leading Change

Instructor(s): Jessica Diaz, Director, Human Resource Management, Assistant Professor
Units: 2
Instruction Mode: Hybrid, Intensive
Section: 1
Session: Module 1
Schedule: (see table below)

Hybrid, Intensive Session Schedule
Session Date Time Instruction Mode
Session 01 08/24 01:00 – 04:50PM In-person
Session 02 08/25 01:00 – 04:50PM In-Person
Session 03 08/26 09:00 – 11:50AM In-Person
Session 04 09/22 01:00 – 03:50PM In-Person
Session 05 10/20 01:00 – 03:50PM Online
Asynchronous Component 08/24 – 10/20 4 Hours Online (Asynchronous)

This course examines key principles and approaches for effective transdisciplinary teamwork and professional practice. Students will engage in experiential team-based learning to explore challenges and strategies for collaboration and communication in working across disciplines and with diverse stakeholders.

Key Concepts: Leadership; Communication; Boundary Crossing


TNDY 408Z – Cybersecurity: Creating a Safe and Secure Global Village

Instructor: Chinazunwa Uwaoma, Research Assistant Professor of Information Systems & Technology
Units: 4
Instruction Mode: Hybrid (see session schedule below)
Session: Full Term
Section: 1
Schedule: Wednesday, 5:00 – 6:50PM (1-hours asynchronous component per week)

Hybrid Session Schedule
Session Date Instruction Mode
Session 01 08/30 Online (Synchronous)
Session 02 09/06 Online (Synchronous)
Session 03 09/13 Online (Synchronous)
Session 04 09/20 Online (Synchronous)
Session 05 09/27 Online (Synchronous)
Session 06 10/04 Online (Synchronous)
Session 07 10/11 In-Person (On-Ground)
Session 08 10/18 In-Person (On-Ground)
Session 09 10/25 Online (Synchronous)
Session 10 11/01 In-Person (On-Ground)
Session 11 11/08 In-Person (On-Ground)
Session 12 11/15 Online (Synchronous)
No Session 11/22 No Class; University Closed
Session 13 11/29 Online (Synchronous)
Session 14 12/06 Online (Synchronous)
Session 15 12/13 Online (Synchronous)

The purpose of this course is to actively engage students in the campaign against cybercrimes. It is aimed at equipping the students with the necessary knowledge and skills to protect their information assets. The course is designed to interactively apply systems thinking to help students understand and analyze the whole gamut of information security threats they face ranging from identity theft and credit card fraud to physical safety both in the workplace and at home. The course also examines the impact of information security threats on society and different populations. The skills and knowledge acquired during the course of this program will not only help the students to identify these threats but also to mitigate them effectively. The course will include demo videos and scenario-based discussion questions to allow the student to gain actual skills.


TNDY 408X – The Power of Love: A Scientific and Embodied Exploration

Instructor: Cindi Gilliland, Professor of Practice in Organizational Psychology
Units: 4
Instruction Mode: In-Person
Section: 1
Session: Full Term
Schedule: Wednesday, 1:00 – 3:50PM

Love in all its forms is a fundamental human experience that is often disregarded as an academic topic or as an experience that requires active, conscious practice. Positive, high-quality relationships have been shown to be the greatest moderator of experienced stress and one of the strongest predictors of longevity and of life satisfaction. However, our current era of 24-7 technological hyper-connectivity is paradoxically accompanied by fragmentation and separation, what Surgeon General Vivek Murphy calls an epidemic of loneliness. This course addresses the issue of love’s complex role in positive human development at individual, social, and global dimensions. Students will work in teams to explore the meanings, practices, and benefits of love from multiple levels of analyses and from scientific, cultural, philosophical, and artistic lenses. We will create personal, embodied practices for growing our own capacities to love ourselves and others, because doing so will not only enhance our own life experiences but can contribute to the growth of thriving communities, world peace, and the development of practices that will sustain human and non-human life.


TNDY 408W – Art of Carl Bray: Painting and Community in the Coachella Valley

Instructor: Tammi Schneider, Danforth Professor of Religion
Units: 4
Instruction Mode: In-Person
Section: 1
Session: Full Term
Schedule: Tuesday, 1:00 – 3:50PM

In this course, students will study, with an eye towards putting together a gallery show and publishing a catalogue, of original art by the smoke paint artist Carl Bray. We will examine issues around art such as what is it, what is landscape painting, what is this particular form of art, as well as why and how art is collected, managed, and displayed. Issues of gender and sexuality will be explored as well, through both the lens of history, place, and field. All of this will culminate in a gallery show with an associated catalogue put on and written by the students in the class.


TNDY 408V – Campaigning and Community Organizing for Change

Instructor: Bree Hemingway, Assistant Clinical Professor of Community and Global Health
Units: 4
Instruction Mode: Online (synchronous, with 1-hour asynchronous component per week)
Section: 1
Session: Full Term
Schedule: Tuesday, 5:00 – 6:50PM

The world is facing a number of complex, wicked problems that affect the health and well-being of communities around the world. Addressing the injustices of health disparities alone can seem overwhelming. Collaborating with partners and the communities that one serves can help generate effective and innovative solutions to these issues. This course introduces students to methods for community organizing— drawing from several disciplines including public policy, history, cultural studies, communication, health promotion and psychology. The service-learning requirement is a unique component of the course that allows students to build, apply, and reflect on their skillset for effective community organizing. Small, inter-disciplinary teams of students will partner with a local community organization to complete ten hours of service learning in-person or virtually. In addition to the service hours, reflection assignments give students the opportunity to explore what they have gained from their experience and how the skills they have gained cross-cut multiple disciplines. Through this course students will be exposed to a mindset for collaborative policy change that can be applied in multiple fields and have the opportunity to refine and reflect on their capacity to support advocacy and community collaboration. The tools students will learn in this course can be used in several settings to address a broad range of societal issues.

Note: Class meets once a week for two hours with one hour of additional asynchronous instruction. The service-learning requirement is a unique component of the course. While working with the site in person or virtually students should maintain proper conduct and respect the code of conduct for the site. All completed hours must be verified by the site. By week four, students will need to submit their proposed plan for completing the service-learning hours. The student’s schedule will be determined by the site and the student.


TNDY 430 – Transdisciplinary Changemakers. Justice-Centered Frameworks for Education

Instructor: Shamini Dias, Director of Transdisciplinary Curriculum and Special Projects
Units: 4
Instruction Mode: Online
Section: 1
Session: Full Term
Schedule: Thursday, 4:00 – 6:50PM

What does change mean in education? Why is change-making a critical leadership role for every teacher in every classroom? How do we lead transformations in formal and informal learning spaces? Audre Lorde famously wrote, “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change.” Genuine changemaking as transdisciplinary action involves transgression, transcendence, and transformation. It is motivated by justice and positive futures grounded in boundary crossing that involves radical listening, curiosity, and generosity. In this course, we examine education as a wicked problem, a centuries old system designed to self-replicate and perpetuate oppression and inequities for a diversity of learners, and woefully misaligned with learning science and current and emerging education contexts. Working in teams, you will develop a transdisciplinary pedagogy of transformation using systems, design, complexity, and reflexivity lenses to create equity-minded processes for authentic, meaningful, and deep learning experiences that prepare all learners to flourish in an emerging and unpredictable world. We will synthesize learning sciences, pedagogical frameworks like Universal Design for Learning, multiliteracies, active learning, authentic assessment, outcomes-guided design, community and relationality. We will also integrate the artistic voice as we explore. To this journey, we invite you to bring your disciplinary perspectives, questions, identities, and lived experiences that connect the outer life of scholarship and teaching with your inner life of values, beliefs, and purpose. Through this process, you will create an explicit and living philosophy and methods that will evolve with your practice. Learning about education as a transformative process for justice, you have an opportunity to be transformed in turn as educator and leader.


TNDY 430 – Transdisciplinary Changemakers. Justice-Centered Frameworks for Education

Instructor: Tamar Salibian, Adjunct Instructor
Units: 4
Instruction Mode: Online
Section: 2
Session: Full Term
Schedule: Monday, 4:00 – 6:50PM

What does change mean in education? Why is change-making a critical leadership role for every teacher in every classroom? How do we lead transformations in formal and informal learning spaces? Audre Lorde famously wrote, “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change.” Genuine changemaking as transdisciplinary action involves transgression, transcendence, and transformation. It is motivated by justice and positive futures grounded in boundary crossing that involves radical listening, curiosity, and generosity. In this course, we examine education as a wicked problem, a centuries old system designed to self-replicate and perpetuate oppression and inequities for a diversity of learners, and woefully misaligned with learning science and current and emerging education contexts. Working in teams, you will develop a transdisciplinary pedagogy of transformation using systems, design, complexity, and reflexivity lenses to create equity-minded processes for authentic, meaningful, and deep learning experiences that prepare all learners to flourish in an emerging and unpredictable world. We will synthesize learning sciences, pedagogical frameworks like Universal Design for Learning, multiliteracies, active learning, authentic assessment, outcomes-guided design, community and relationality. We will also integrate the artistic voice as we explore. To this journey, we invite you to bring your disciplinary perspectives, questions, identities, and lived experiences that connect the outer life of scholarship and teaching with your inner life of values, beliefs, and purpose. Through this process, you will create an explicit and living philosophy and methods that will evolve with your practice. Learning about education as a transformative process for justice, you have an opportunity to be transformed in turn as educator and leader.


TNDY 403E – Working Across Cultures

Instructor: Robert Klitgaard, University Professor
Units: 4
Instruction Mode: Online
Section: 1
Session: Full Term
Schedule: Tuesday, 7:00 – 9:50PM

People in business, government, nonprofits, education, public health, and religious institutions increasingly find themselves working across cultures. This course addresses three broad questions.

  1. How can you prepare for the challenges of working or studying in a different cultural setting?
  2. Within your own institution in your own country, how can you take advantage of various kinds of cultural diversity?
  3. How can you tailor policies, negotiations, and management practices to take account of different cultural settings?

Cultural competence arises at several levels: the individual, the institution, and the design and implementation of policies and programs. At each level, there are challenges of the head, the hand, and the heart. Fortunately, abundant research and practical experience can teach us how to do better. The course draws from many disciplines and uses examples from the United States and around the world.

This course should provide valuable knowledge and skills for both future professionals (in public health, business, education, public policy, evaluation, international relations, and more) and future professors.

This course teaches how to:

  1. Address culture misunderstandings in ourselves and in our institutions.
  2. Evaluate and manage the benefits and costs of various kinds of cultural diversity.
  3. Apply lessons from what works in one cultural setting to a different cultural setting.
  4. Improve negotiations across cultures.
  5. Reframe our individual identities as multicultural.

TNDY 311 – Systems, Complexity, and Futures Thinking

Instructor: Andrew Vosko, Associate Provost and Director of Transdisciplinary Studies
Units: 1
Instruction Mode: Hybrid, Intensive
Section: 1
Session: Module 1
Schedule: COURSE CANCELLED

This course introduces critical mindsets and ways of thinking for transdisciplinary analysis – systems, complexity, and futures thinking. Students will apply these thinking frameworks to analyze the inter-connectedness, non-linearity, dynamic relationships, and future implications of complex issues.

Key Concepts: Complexity Orientation – uncertainty and emergence; Systems Thinking – plurality, interconnectivity, feedback loops; Future Thinking – sustainability, positive futures; Metaphysics of Dilemma – stakeholder problem solving, transdisciplinary research.


TNDY 312 – Tackling Wicked Problems

Instructor: Andrew Vosko, Associate Provost and Director of Transdisciplinary Studies
Units: 1
Instruction Mode: Hybrid, Intensive
Section: 1
Session: Mid Term
Schedule: COURSE CANCELLED

This course focuses on the nature of complex dilemmas or wicked problems and issues of justice in how we approach them. Students will explore frameworks of social justice and the multiple stakeholders who create, are affected by, and can be part of the process in addressing wicked problems.

Key Concepts: Complex Dilemmas; Social Justice and Sustainability; Ontology, Epistemology, and Axiology of Complex Problem Solving; Reflexivity – double loop learning; Boundary Crossing, Transdisciplinary Disruption and Integration.


Past Courses