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Pathway: Creativity

Connections

Learn more about Connections, Connecticut College's innovative new curriculum.

Explore creativity in every aspect of human achievement.

Creativity is the ability to make connections between seemingly unrelated phenomena, to realize something fresh and inventive. Creativity gives one a sense of being alive and valuable. There is creativity in everything, from scientific discoveries to a new business model to a plan to make the world just and sustainable.

Students in this Pathway will experience creativity within a variety of disciplines. Students will learn to analyze the similarities and differences between creation and innovation, explore how their personal identities connect to creativity, understand how knowledge is socially constructed with creativity, consider the moral and ethical implications of creativity and develop skills and practices for cultivating creativity.

While students construct their own animating questions, some possible examples include:

What is creativity and where does it come from?
Can one become more creative by changing mindset or finding a passion, or is creativity something you either have or do not have?
Are creativity and innovation interconnected? If so how?
What role does creativity play in science?
What pros and cons are there to creativity?
What are the greater implications to creativity?
Do other animals have creativity and how do they express it?

Palmer Okai

Palmer Okai

The Death of Human Thought? What AI Could Mean for Human Creativity

Palmer, a computer science major, architectural studies minor and scholar in the Creativity Pathway from Strafford, Vermont, has a keen interest in the intersection of arts and technology. He particularly wants to know if human creativity is at risk as AI gains prevalence in creative industries. He explores this question in his All-College Symposium project, “The Death of Human Thought? What AI Could Mean for Human Creativity.”

“I believe human creativity is at risk given the rise in generative AI. I think an attitude shift in how we view and utilize AI tools is necessary to mitigate this risk,” says Palmer, who worked with and learned about AI tools in his more technical Pathway courses and studied the human experience in his humanities classes. “Studying things humans create and understanding how intertwined they are with expression and identity while simultaneously studying and working with generative AI offered a juxtaposition that revealed how valuable I believe human thought and creation to be.”

A data operations internship with Precisely Software Incorporated rounded out Palmer’s research this past summer—he says he got the chance to put his creative problem solving to use in developing solutions to difficult open-ended problems. Another rich source of inspiration, a spring-semester study away program in Belfast, Northern Ireland, added some balance. “I had the chance to engage with a culture with a deep appreciation for art, music and many other creative disciplines,” Palmer says. “In contrast, my academics were greatly focused on utilizing artificial intelligence. Immersing myself in both at the same time helped me to develop my animating question.”

During his time as a Camel, the senior has served as founder and president of the Connecticut College Squash Club, a member of a band through MOBROC, a computer science teaching assistant, and an athletics event statistician. He also won the Sophomore Computer Science Award for excellence in research, academics and service and the Junior Computer Science Award for distinction in computer science.

Global/Local Engagement

Each Pathway requires students to pursue purposeful engagement in a local or international context, such as study away, an internship or community-based learning. Ideally the opportunity would allow for exploration in an engaging way that allows students to design their coursework to meaningfully connect to their animating question.

Internship experiences that students develop and create themselves are ideal for this Pathway (as opposed to established, pre-existing, posted internships that are created by employers). By creating and developing their own internship experience, and proposing it to a potential sponsor, the student can have a proactive role in their participation and direct firsthand learning. The opportunity for students to create their own internships is strongly supported by the College’s 3-year Career Action Program. Students can take full advantage of this opportunity by determining what kind of internship experience they want and proactively finding where they want to pursue it. Through networking, possibly with Conn alumni and parents, they can determine companies and organizations of interest, create and propose their own internship terms to align with their animating question, and gain approval to secure funding. Some examples include:

Artist collaborative work with local school kids
Volunteering for activist movement
Research in a psychology lab
Organic and/or sustainable farming
Interning at a film or music festival
Assisting an artist or team of artists (dance, theater, visual, musical, etc.)

Students will also be encouraged to have a part in developing or creating activities and programs related to their focus area of creativity within their communities. By having a role in developing programming within a community-based connection, students will be better prepared to directly inform or relate to their animating question and Pathway focus. Students will be able to explore options through Community Partnerships. Some examples include:

Developing a Creative Expression Dance Program for students at the Connecticut College Children’s Center
Organizing and designing a collaborative art project at a local school or community center
Reviewing, proposing and implementing resource-saving measures at a local business
Volunteering with the sustainability office on campus

Thematic Inquiry

The Thematic Inquiry course will expose students to different applications of creativity in a broad range of disciplines, and teach them to recognize and understand the manifestation of creativity in the faculty, guests and their communities. Students will apply their creativity in the form of questions posed to their classmates, to visiting speakers, and, ultimately, to themselves.

Topics include modern vs. postmodern theory; creative thinking, problem solving and innovation; The Human Spark; the imagination; personal vision; skills and techniques for increasing creativity, benefits of personal creativity and negative effects of creativity. Students will be required to keep physical journals; create a website that has all of their questions, source information and applied creative work; complete a final project; answer questions on readings that will lead to small and large group discussions and write papers on the course content applied to their processes.

Pathway Courses

In the context of Creativity, all courses within each of the Modes of Inquiry can be eligible to count toward the Curricular Itinerary. Students will meet with Pathway Coordinator, Prof. Greg Bailey, to provide a rationale to connect three of the Modes of Inquiry to their animating question. Students will be encouraged to fulfill as many Modes of Inquiry after taking the Thematic Inquiry as possible, balancing their major requirements.

View Approved Courses

Pathway Coordinator

Gregory Bailey, Associate Professor of Art

Gregory A. Bailey

Associate Professor of Art

As an artist, Greg Bailey makes work that functions for him as his most direct and honest response possible to the world around him. Bailey’s use of metaphor relates his work both personally and universally. He uses a range of technical, conceptual, and expressive aspects in his work. His work combines narratives and contemporary theory; it engages in political, social and cultural awareness and commentary, utilizing elements of wit, humor, irony, and visual aesthetic.

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Core Faculty & Staff

Chris Barnard

Professor of Art, Chair of the Art Department

Chris Barnard teaches Concepts in Two Dimensions; Drawing Fundamentals; Introduction to Painting; Figurative Painting & Its Politics; and Large Format Painting. His work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions in Los Angeles, New York City, San Diego, Chicago, and New Haven, and can be found in public and private collections nationally and internationally. He is represented by Fred Giampietro Gallery, New Haven, and Luis De Jesus Los Angeles.

Lyndsay Bratton

Digital Scholarship and Visual Resources Librarian

David Dorfman

Professor of Dance

David Dorfman '81, who describes his Connecticut College education as “magic,” returned to the campus as an associate professor of dance in 2004 and was promoted to full professor in 2008.His company, David Dorfman Dance, considered one of the most influential American contemporary dance companies for the past two decades, was permanently named company-in-residence at the College in Fall 2007.

Danielle Egan

Dean of the Faculty, Fuller-Maathai Professor of Gender, Sexuality and Intersectionality Studies

R. Danielle Egan, the Fuller-Maathai Professor of Gender, Sexuality and Intersectionality Studies at Connecticut College, is Dean of the Faculty and Chief Academic Officer. The highest-ranking officer after the president, the Dean of the Faculty is responsible for providing academic leadership for the College and its faculty.

Libby Friedman '80

Assistant Dean of the College for Connections

EOFRI@conncoll.edu

David Jaffe

Professor of Theater

David Jaffe's courses include Acting I: Preparation; Acting II; Directing I: Coaching the Actor; and the Advanced Acting rotation of Heightened Text, Shakespeare, and The Realists: Chekhov & Ibsen.

Manuel Lizarralde

Professor of Botany and Environmental Studies

Manuel Lizarralde, a professor with a dual appointment in environmental studies and botany, grapples with questions of people and the environment on a daily basis in his teaching and research. A native of Venezuela, Lizarralde has focused much of his work on the relation of indigenous Latin Americans to the environment, including the types of areas they inhabit and their use of plants. He studies ethnobotany (how people use plants) because the indigenous knowledge of local plants is very rich, and all of these cultures are rapidly changing and the information is being lost.

Timothy McDowell

Lucretia L. Allyn Professor of Art

Timothy McDowell teaches intaglio printmaking using photopolymer plates, woodcut, linocut and stone lithography. These processes are rotated through Print Workshop, courses ART 204 and ART 202. He also teaches Drawing Fundamentals and Drawing Through Process.

Joseph A. Schroeder

Professor of Psychology, Director of the Neuroscience Program

Joseph Schroeder has a diverse background in psychology, neuroscience, cell biology, neuropathology and pharmacology. Understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of behavior has been the unifying theme of his research interests from the beginning of his career.

Paola Sica

Professor of Italian, Chair of Italian Studies

Paola Sica teaches a variety of courses, especially those on modern and contemporary Italian verbal and visual cultures, including “Modernisms and Modernity,” “Italian Film and Literature: from Neorealism to the Present,” “Cultural Identity in Italy and Adjacent Geographical Areas (especially the Mediterranean)” and research seminars on various contemporary topics such as mobility, translation and transculturation.

Perry D. Susskind

Professor of Mathematics

Perry Susskind teaches Multivariable Calculus, Calculus C: Integrals and Series, Linear Algebra, Real Analysis I and II and Seminar in Mathematics.

Margaret (Midge) Thomas

Sylvia Marx Professor of Music

Midge Thomas is a music theorist with a particular interest in the rhythmic practices of contemporary art music, jazz, and popular musics. Her research extends into rhythm pedagogy, curricular design, and equity pedagogy. Through an ongoing collaboration with Professor Ruth Grahn, she is investigating connections between music, the brain, and resilience.

Dot Wang

Associate Director/Adviser, Hale Center for Career Development

DWANG1@CONNCOLL.EDU

Marc Zimmer

Jean C. Tempel '65 Professor of Chemistry

Marc Zimmer teaches general chemistry, molecular science and environmental chemistry. He has tried to make these courses relevant and interesting by introducing the most recent developments in general, medicinal and environmental chemistry in his classes.

Global/Local Engagement

Each Pathway requires students to pursue purposeful engagement in a local or international context, such as study away, an internship or community-based learning. Ideally the opportunity would allow for exploration in an engaging way that allows students to design their coursework to meaningfully connect to their animating question.

Internship experiences that students develop and create themselves are ideal for this Pathway (as opposed to established, pre-existing, posted internships that are created by employers). By creating and developing their own internship experience, and proposing it to a potential sponsor, the student can have a proactive role in their participation and direct firsthand learning. The opportunity for students to create their own internships is strongly supported by the College’s 3-year Career Action Program. Students can take full advantage of this opportunity by determining what kind of internship experience they want and proactively finding where they want to pursue it. Through networking, possibly with Conn alumni and parents, they can determine companies and organizations of interest, create and propose their own internship terms to align with their animating question, and gain approval to secure funding. Some examples include:

Artist collaborative work with local school kids
Volunteering for activist movement
Research in a psychology lab
Organic and/or sustainable farming
Interning at a film or music festival
Assisting an artist or team of artists (dance, theater, visual, musical, etc.)

Students will also be encouraged to have a part in developing or creating activities and programs related to their focus area of creativity within their communities. By having a role in developing programming within a community-based connection, students will be better prepared to directly inform or relate to their animating question and Pathway focus. Students will be able to explore options through Community Partnerships. Some examples include:

Developing a Creative Expression Dance Program for students at the Connecticut College Children’s Center
Organizing and designing a collaborative art project at a local school or community center
Reviewing, proposing and implementing resource-saving measures at a local business
Volunteering with the sustainability office on campus

Pathway Courses

In the context of Creativity, all courses within each of the Modes of Inquiry can be eligible to count toward the Curricular Itinerary. Students will meet with Pathway Coordinator, Prof. Greg Bailey, to provide a rationale to connect three of the Modes of Inquiry to their animating question. Students will be encouraged to fulfill as many Modes of Inquiry after taking the Thematic Inquiry as possible, balancing their major requirements.

Recent News & Media

Recent News

Leader in liberal arts education to speak Nov. 17

Leader in liberal arts education to speak Nov. 17

Campus News

Connections

P: 860-439-2899 E: eofri@conncoll.edu

Mailing Address

Connecticut College
Fanning 206
270 Mohegan Ave.
New London, CT 06320

Contact

Libby Friedman ’80
Assistant Dean of the College for Connections

Office

Fanning Hall 206