DIALOGUE AND DESIGN: EXPERIMENTATION AND DISCOVERY IN AN INTERDISCIPLINARY COURSE FOR UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS: DESIGNING THE STORIES OF OUR LIVES

This paper reports on an interdisciplinary initiative at the American University of Sharjah (AUS) in the United Arab Emirates. This initiative brought together faculty from the Design department of the College of Art, Architecture and Design, and the Writing Studies department of the College of Arts and Sciences in a collaborative course which invited students to examine stories of their lives and express those stories in visual and written text.

All students at AUS are required to complete a series of writing courses leading to the demonstration of competence in key elements of academic discourse as prerequisites for study in their core disciplines. Once these requirements are met, many students will then write in English only at the functional level required to meet the demands of their core disciplines such as Engineering, Science, or Business. Very few will write in English for personal or creative expression. Similarly, most students will have, at best, limited opportunity in their discipline studies to experiment with visual design and to examine the relationship between written and visual expressions of meaning. The elective course Designing the Stories of Our Lives provided a learning environment in which third and fourth year undergraduate students from outside writing and design disciplines could develop visual and verbal narratives expressing their awareness of self and their place in the world.

The paper will outline the design of the course; it will show how dialogue between the teaching team and between participating students and the teaching team have impacted on the design in a second iteration of the course. The paper will also discuss student outcomes and evaluate the role of such a course in the curriculum of the AUS. Finally, the paper will reflect on the value of cross- disciplinary collaboration for faculty.