💡 What is SAIL?

Seahawks Advancing Interdisciplinary Learning (SAIL), UNCW’s Quality Enhancement Plan, uses interdisciplinary learning to improve student learning in the areas of critical thinking, diversity, and global citizenship. It focuses on improving our students’ higher-order thinking skills—especially their ability to examine complex local, global, and intercultural issues from multiple perspectives, analyze their own and others’ assumptions, discuss how culture and society influence such assumptions, evaluate the relevance of context when presenting a position, provide evidence in support of that position, and acknowledge competing viewpoints. Please watch the following video for a overview:

Executive Summary

Our goal is to use interdisciplinary learning to improve undergraduate student learning outcomes of critical thinking, diversity, and global citizenship. SAIL focuses especially on the interdisciplinary skills of disciplinary grounding (drawing on and explaining the relevance of multiple disciplines to solve a problem or inquiry), perspective-taking (examining one's own assumptions and biases and incorporating the perspectives of others), and integration (making connections between disciplinary insights and articulating new understandings from them).

Review Executive Summary

SAIL Faculty & Staff

SAIL Staff

Dr. Beverley McGuire | Director

Dr. Erica Noles | Assistant Director

Kelley Hanna | Senior SAIL Faculty Fellow

SAIL Advisory Board

Our SAIL advisory board has broad representation across the university, including faculty and administrators from all colleges.

View Advisory Board

SAIL Student Committee

Rochelle David | Marine Biology, minor in Women & Gender Studies

Eli King | Environmental Science, minor in Coastal & Environmental Writing

Joandy Martinez-Rey | Business Administration, minor in Leadership Studies

Skyler Aston Stein | Political Science, minor in Pre-Law and Campaign Management

🗓️ What are the upcoming events?

SAIL Showcase (lunch provided at 11:30 am): Monday September 9, 12 pm – 1 pm, EB 162 and Zoom

See what last year's SAIL faculty did in their classrooms
Learn how to apply for SAIL grants for spring 2025 and 2025-2026 (deadline: November 15)
Ask any questions about SAIL or interdisciplinary learning

Interdisciplinary Learning Workshop (lunch provided): Friday September 13, 12:30 pm – 2 pm in EB 226 & Zoom

Learn about the interdisciplinary skills of disciplinary grounding, perspective-taking, and integration
Ask any questions about our SAIL grant application (deadline: November 15)

Operationalizing Interdisciplinarity in the Classroom: Wednesday September 18, 2-3 pm and Thursday September 26, 2-3 pm

Explore how to operationalize interdisciplinary learning in your classroom
Network with other colleagues interested in interdisciplinary learning

SAIL Event Schedule

👋 How can I get involved as a Fellow?

SAIL Faculty Fellows review and select grantees, and they assess student work from SAIL courses.

SAIL Faculty Fellow Responsibilities & Application

SAIL Faculty Fellows evaluate grant proposals to determine who will receive grants, and they assess student work. They receive a stipend upon completion of scoring. The application consists of a statement of interest and CV. Click here to learn more and upload your application by Friday, October 4 at 5 pm.

Previous Faculty Fellows

Brian Chandler | World Languages and Culture

Sarah Gaby | Sociology and Criminology

Kelley Hanna | World Languages and Cultures

Julius Jones | History

Olga Lenczewska | Philosophy and Religion

Katherine Liu | CSURF

Isaac Loh | Math

Larissa Malone | Instructional Technology, Foundations and Secondary Education

Abigail Upshaw | Art and Art History

Jacqueline Vaughn | Nursing

🌎 What are the current and previous SAIL projects?

SAIL projects are teams or individuals who incorporate interdisciplinary learning into their courses.

Current Projects

Integrating Mindfulness-Based Pedagogy and Interdisciplinary Learning across Disciplines (2024-2027) | Nadine Gibson (PIA), Jacquelyn Lee (Social Work), Chris Robinson (Randall Library), Ann Rotchford (Sociology and Criminology), Maria Tyler (Nursing)

- Project Description: This project integrates mindfulness-based pedagogy with interdisciplinary learning in 300-400 level courses in Political Science, Sociology and Criminology, Nursing, and Philosophy and Religion. It seeks to to build capacity and community through faculty development, to improve student critical thinking and perspective-taking skills by including arts-based and community-engaged pedagogies, and to increase constructive dialogue skills, capacity for active and compassionate listening, and career readiness skills. Courses include State Government and Politics (PLS 350), Methods of Social Science Research (SOC/CRM 300), Senior Seminar (PLS 401), Data Analysis and Interpretation (SOC/CRM 301), Capstone (PAR 400)

Crossroads of Understanding: Enhancing Intersectional Perspectives through Place-Based Interdisciplinary Studies (2024-2027) | Sarah Gaby (Sociology and Criminology), Michael Betts (Film Studies), Samantha Crisp (Randall Library), Kimberly Kemingway (English), Allison Harris (English), Amy Santa (Early Childhood, Elementary, Middle, Literacy, and Special Education), Helena Spencer (Music), Elizabeth Wellman (Theater)

- Project Description: This project uses interdisciplinary tools and methods to encourage students to develop nuanced and intersectional perspectives of race, inequality, violence, and resilience across many diverse communities in North Carolina. It supports a community of interdisciplinary scholar-teachers committed to enhancing students’ critical thinking around diversity, oriented by the local context of the state of North Carolina, and creates multifaceted high-impact student learning opportunities both inside and outside the classroom. Courses include Journalism Writing (ENG 302), North Carolina Authors (ENG 354), Sound In Space: Wilmington 1898 (FST 416/516), Women in Music (MUS 342), Senior Seminar (SOC/CRM 495), Black American Theatre (THR 366), and Teaching Diverse Learners (EDN 330).

Mathematical Aesthetics (2024-2027) | Madison Creech (Art & Art History), Sean English (Mathematics & Statistics), Jeonghwa Lee (Mathematics & Statistics), Jeremiah Roberts (Computer Science), and Erik Slivken (Mathematics & Statistics)

- Project Description: This project will enable students to learn how mathematical concepts and ideas are integrated with art, how mathematical concepts appear in artistic works, how aesthetic beauty is observed in mathematical objects, and how mathematical rules and their aesthetic beauty are revealed in nature and observed in many areas including engineering, architecture, data science, etc. Courses include Mathematics as an Art Form ( ART 475), Games: Theory and Design (MAT 475), and The Art of Data Visualization (CSC/STT 472)

Critical AI: Enhancing Critical Thinking through Interdisciplinary Learning about Artificial Intelligence (2023-2026) | Gulustan Dogan (Computer Science), Shannon Ford (Nursing), Judith Gebauer (Information Systems and Operations), Julie Hinkle (Nursing), John Knox (Randall Library), Christine Liao (Art Education), Jennifer Lozano (English), Amy Moody (Special Education), Yao Shi (Management Information Systems)

- Project Description: This project seeks to prepare students from all disciplines to engage with the rapidly expanding world of AI by creating learning experiences exploring the history and current uses of AI, exploring innovative applications, and critically thinking about AI development, implementation, and governance. Courses include Deep Machine Learning (CSC 432), Integrating the Arts in the Elementary Curriculum (EDN 414), and AI for Business (MIS 492).

Interdisciplinary Approaches to Information and Digital Literacies (2023-2026) | Stephanie Crowe (Randall Library), Colleen Reilly (English), Diana Ashe (English), Jason Fleming (Randall Library), Sarah Hallenbeck (English), Brittany O'Neill (Randall Library), Tracy Peña (Instructional Technology), Shaila Strayhorn-Carter (Public Health), Catherine Williams (Psychology), Sam Zelick (Randall Library)

- Project Description: This project uses interdisciplinary pedagogies to improve students' information and digital literacies, which is especially important in the face of abundant mis- and disinformation, social media, and the rapid proliferation of artificial intelligence. It plans to develop a Canvas module providing instruction in information and critical digital literacies that can be customized for and integrated into courses across disciplines, to provide professional development for faculty to create assignment prompts integrating the module, to sponsor speakers on critical digital literacies, and to create assignments to deploy across paired courses from different disciplines that ask students to work together to solve a problem related to information and critical digital literacies. Courses include Technical Editing (ENG 309), Advanced Learning and Behavior Analysis (PSY 417), and Writing in Scientific Disciplines (ENG 393).

An Interdisciplinary Approach to End-of-Life Education on Our Campus and within Our Community (2023-2026) | Alissa Dark-Freudeman (Psychology), Jamy Chulak (Respiratory Therapy), Elizabeth Fugate-Whitlock (Gerontology), Kirsten Kringle-Baer (Philosophy), and Tina Newsham (Gerontology)

- Project Description: This project seeks to prepare students to better care for the increasingly diverse needs of the dying and address systemic barriers to advanced care planning. In the first year, students learn about, explore, and identify different perspectives on end-of-life care and barriers to end-of-life planning and decision making within our local community. In the second year, students will help address these barriers by assisting with the development and testing of online community-focused resources and engage in outreach and educational events related to end-of-life care and advanced care planning. Courses include Psychology of Death & Dying (PSY 449), Introduction to Gerontology (GRN 101), Current Issues in Gerontology (GRN 440), Bioethics (PAR 215), the History and Evolving Roles of Respiratory Therapists (RSP 101), and Introduction to Mechanical Ventilation (RSP 306).

Global Pathways to Carolina del Norte: Linguistic and Educational Connections to Spanish-speaking Populations in Southeastern North Carolina | Jeremy Hilburn (Early Childhood, Elementary, Middle, and Special Education) and Brian Chandler (World Languages & Cultures)

- Project Description: This project brings the disciplines of Education together with Language and Cultural Studies to enable students to gain a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the sociocultural, educational, and linguistic features of Spanish-speaking North Carolinians and their heritage regions/countries. Students in Advanced Spanish Grammar (SPN 306) will bring disciplinary grounding from Spanish (e.g., lexico-grammatical analysis, socio-linguistic history, and linguistic variation), while students in Diverse Learners (EDN 320) will bring disciplinary expertise related to teaching (e.g., education systems, how schools/teachers/policies support language acquisition). Together, they will learn about the specific elements of their assigned group (e.g., the specifics of linguistic variation in southeastern Mexico compared to other Spanish-speaking regions, the push and pull factors that lead many folks in Southeastern Mexico to move to Southeastern NC) in the context of global immigration patterns to Southeastern North Carolina.

Interdisciplinary Approaches to Immigration | Bill Alexander (Anthropology) and Amanda Boomershine (World Languages and Cultures)

- Project Description: This project aims to enhance students’ understanding of immigration through interdisciplinary approaches to the immigrant experience using the prospective of the immigrant themselves. Students will explore this important topic in two upper-level courses: The Immigrant Experience (ANT 330) and Service Learning & Research “Hispanics in North Carolina” (SPN 490).

Thinking Critically and Creatively about Interdisciplinary K-12 Learning through and with Music | Dan Johnson (Music)

- Project Description: This project enables music education majors to extend their musical backgrounds by experiencing and learning pedagogical terminology from English Language Arts (ELA), creative movement, drama, and visual art. Courses include General Music Methods (MUS 326) and Field Experience in General Music Methods (MUSL 326).

Past Projects

Enhancing Critical Thinking through Interdisciplinary Analysis of the Figure of "the Other" and "the Alien" in French and Francophone Studies | Greta Bliss and Christina Lord (World Languages and Cultures)

- Project Description: This project enhanced students’ critical understanding of how belief systems, including but not limited to those in French and Francophone Studies, are subverted and transformed in encounters with different forms of alterity and disciplinary groundings in and beyond French and Francophone Studies. Students explored these questions in two different upper-division courses: Introduction to the Francophone World: “Cinema of Africa and Its Diasporas” (FRH 319) and Topics in French Studies: “Alien Encounters in French Fiction and Thought" (FRH 411)

Health Communication with African Non-Profits: An Integrative, Interdisciplinary Learning Project | G. Edzordzi Agbozo (English)

- Project Description: This project challenged students to integrate rhetorical, genre studies, postcoloniality, and semiotic systems perspectives, and their practice in global health contexts. In Writing About Science (ENG 313), students wrote and designed public health and science documents for StandOut Care, a primary health care non-profit in Ghana, West Africa. Through this experience, students prepared themselves to take up the challenges of contemporary health and science communication in a global African context.

Improving Coastal Health Through Interdisciplinary Learning | Jennifer Biddle (Public and International Affairs)

- Project Description: This interdisciplinary, experiential learning course, Global Environmental Governance (PLS 370), immersed students in the complicated process of anticipating, adapting, and responding to threats in an ever- changing environment. The goal of the course was to expose students to the diversity of issues facing coastal communities and teach them tools to integrate information from multiple perspectives through interdisciplinary learning. Students explored coastal, sound, and estuarine environments of North Carolina through a field-immersion course format and were taught them how to integrate information from the social and natural sciences into governmental decision-making processes to sustainably manage coastal and ocean resources, in the face of real-world constraints.

Traditional Caribbean and Western Conceptions of Health and Illness | Dorcas Dennis (Philosophy and Religion)

- Project Description: Ritual Therapy and Health in Caribbean Religions (PAR 322) explored how Caribbean cultural philosophy and Western psychological perspectives of illness, health, and healing modalities intersect and differ in the Caribbean and its diaspora. Students gained knowledge of the disciplines of Psychology and Caribbean Studies, analyzed disease causation, health, and healing techniques from these perspectives, explored similarities and differences between them, and generated a more holistic approach and understanding of health and illness.

Creating a Global Partnership and Interdisciplinary Study Abroad: Biodiversity Conservation in Christmas Island with the Australian Parks Service | Julia Morris (International Studies)

- Project Description: This project focused on creating an interdisciplinary course and study abroad curriculum centered on biodiversity conservation. The interdisciplinary question guiding the project’s learning design was: how can we integrate multiple disciplinary conceptualizations and solutions to address the problem of species and ecosystem losses? The overall learning goal was to effectively support students in approaching environmental problems and devising sustainable solutions. The course was Topics in the Global Environment (INT 320).

An Interdisciplinary Artistic Research Experience for Undergraduate Students in Critical Performance Ethnography: From a 3-Credit Course to an Interdisciplinary Peer-Reviewed Publication | Julie-Ann Scott-Pollock (Communication Studies)

- Project Description: This project had students in Performance Practicum (COM 415) participate in an interdisciplinary critical performance ethnography of personal narratives of identity. Students learned the complex interdisciplinary roots of critical performance ethnography in anthropology, theater, and communication studies. They drew on these disciplines to master the method and participate in staging a live performance with a digital backdrop recorded for peer-reviewed multimedia publication.

👀 Interested in getting involved in a project? Check out our latest application information to get started.

💻 SAIL Resources

These guides, worksheets, rubrics, and videos can help you design and develop interdisciplinary learning experiences and signature assignments for SAIL.

SAIL Resources

SAIL Navigational Guide: This document is a guide to SAIL project requirements, including planning and progress surveys, assessment of SAIL classes (pre- and post-surveys and signature assignments), and use of funds (compensation rates and requirements).

Signature Assignment Worksheet: This worksheet is required for SAIL courses and asks you to provide the prompt for your assignment and explain how you will meet the interdisciplinary learning outcomes of disciplinary grounding, perspective-taking, and integration, as well as one (or more) of the student learning outcomes of critical thinking, diversity, and global citizenship. The signature assignment is meant to directly assess their skills (i.e., will allow students to demonstrate these abilities to an outside reader) instead of indirectly assessing their skills (i.e., asking students their perceptions of these skills).

SAIL Rubrics: These rubrics are used to assess all SAIL signature assignments and show the expectations for novice, intermediate, and mastery levels of the interdisciplinary skills of disciplinary grounding (understanding ways knowledge is constructed, validated, and communicated in disciplines or professions), perspective-taking (analyzing problems and issues from these disciplinary perspectives and reflecting on personal biases and assumptions), and integration (generating new understanding that would not have been possible using a single discipline and organizing these insights), as well as critical thinking, diversity, and global citizenship outcomes.

Quality Enhancement Plan (2023-2028): This is the official proposal for SAIL, which includes the topic identification process, a literature review on interdisciplinary learning, an overview of SAIL, our budget, and our assessment plan.

Videos of Previous SAIL Events: This page contains video recordings of previous SAIL events and workshops.

Online Resources about Interdisciplinary Learning: This page contains links to online resources about interdisciplinary teaching and learning.

Connect & Collaborate: This online forum enables faculty to connect, and it includes a link to a spreadsheet of faculty interested in collaborating.

Don't see what you are looking for on this page? No worries, SAIL is here to help! You can email us directly at mcguireb@uncw.edu or nolese@uncw.edu.