"I sought to answer several key questions: how to create a network of students from all disciplinary backgrounds, get them to work, interact in groups, teach them new interdisciplinary skills, and then develop transferable skills by learning to pass on what they have learned, through body movement, street theater, music and martial arts?," says Anne Vanet, a professor of molecular biology.
Her answer: To develop the course “Body and Mind, Esprit de Corps". She set out to capture what the students had learned in the interdisciplinary courses earlier in the semester. She discovered that this could be articulated through the cross-curricular theme “The World Beyond”. Based on this, the students created a theatrical performance on the last day.
Professors and students working together
The participants were five students from the Department of Musicology of the University of Oslo, their Professor Peter Edwards, Professors Benoit Raucent and Yves Deville from UCLouvain, Professor Nadia Pisanti from the University of Pisa and Professors Nathalie Blanc, Dominique Vidal and Isabelle Blanc from Université Paris Cité - all coming with their geographical and disciplinary prisms.
Disciplines, bodywork and transferable skills cross paths
Since January 2023, students at Université Paris Cité and the University of Oslo have been taking 8 disciplinary and 15 theater courses. The format enabled the students to debate, open up to new perspectives and develop transferable skills, such as teamwork and creativity. On the last day, students creatively presented the work they had completed during the semester.
Contact: anne.vanet@u-paris.fr
