March 2022 KI update

  • While KIX and the Barcelona field trip had to be cancelled in 2021, Museum has been in person this cycle—with a double cohort of 41 students and 7 exhibits—and we’re looking forward to welcoming to KIX 2022, March 14-19! If you’re able to visit we would love to see you.

  • Alumni response to our recent survey has been fantastic, and evenly distributed across our 10 years of grads to date—thank you! Those responses will be very helpful for our cyclical program review. You had very validating things to say about the program and its impact, and also many good suggestions for our future curriculum planning sessions. It’s great to hear that 95% of you are extremely likely (80%) or somewhat likely (15%) to recommend KI to an appropriate student.
  • We had the sad news of the passing of Dr. Linda Carson, a long-time contributor to the University of Waterloo community including Knowledge Integration. She was an important part of the team that developed the program design, before even the first students had enrolled. Subsequently, she went on to teach courses in the early years of Knowledge Integration where many of you had the chance to experience firsthand her insightful and creative approach to interdisciplinary pedagogy in the classroom.
  • We’re pleased to announce that Katie Plaisance was recognized with the OCUFA Teaching Award, the most prestigious teaching award in the province. Bravo Katie!
  • Mathieu Feagan has recently joined the Faculty of Environment and the Department of Knowledge Integration as an Assistant Professor, and his research interests are in social theory, Indigenous ways of knowing, emancipatory pedagogies, ecological consciousness. Check out his profile and learn about his interdisciplinary engagement.
  • The KI students in INTEG 452: Real World Problem Solving taught by Paul McKone in 2020/21 took on the challenge of collaborating with the University of Waterloo Earth Sciences Museum and worked with them to create a virtual tour.
  • “what we’ve been up to during the pandemic”:
    • Despite the pandemic, Rob Gorbet managed to travel a bit during his sabbatical, delivering a workshop at the Domaine de Boisbuchet in August, and returning in November to install a new collaborative work called Ar Frout Récif, in the Brittany region. You can learn more about Ar Frout Récif on the LASG website projects page, and read Rob’s install blog.
    • Katie Plaisance recently launched a new research group called “Co-Lab”, designed to study and improve interdisciplinary collaboration. Co-Lab has two main projects on the go. The first looks at the role of psychological safety and epistemic humility in creating inclusive teams and harnessing diverse perspectives. The second project aims to find ways of fostering fruitful collaborations between scientists and philosophers of science.
    • During 2021, Vanessa Schweizer performed numerous online speaking engagements related to her work on design thinking, complexity science, and scenario analysis for the low-carbon energy transition as well as climate change. As the current director of the Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation (WICI), she also worked to renew WICI for another 5-year term into 2026.
    • John McLevey’s book Doing Computational Social Science was published by Sage UK. He also co-authored a book called The Face-to-Face Principle: Science, Trust, Truth, and Democracy, which was published by Cardiff University Press.
  • The Anti-Oppression Knowledge Integrators (AOK) working group published its first annual report detailing activities and a set of recommendations.
  • For the classes of Amsterdam I and Berlin II, this year is a milestone reunion! Whether you travelled with this cohort, graduated with them, or just otherwise feel connected, check out the ENV reunion website to see how we’re celebrating. To be included, connect with the class champions listed on that web page. I look forward to seeing you in the KI studio!
  • The Knowledge Integration Community Slack workspace is active and continues to grow with over 150 members! To join us talking about #connections, #careers, and #community, please email Kim.

Keep connected and engaged!

Many great ways to get involved.