Source ProjectOngoing Open Call to Faculty for Experimental First-Year Research Courses |
The Source Project is an opportunity for faculty to experiment with new pedagogical strategies in small seminars with highly engaged first-year students. The goal of this project is to guide students from being consumers to producers of knowledge through a full year sequence of two, four-credit courses in fall and spring semesters. We are always looking for new course ideas. We plan new courses 1-2 years in advance and welcome ideas from faculty at any time.
The Source Project focuses on topics that emphasize consequential aspects of the human experience, broadly, through research in the humanities, arts, social sciences or interdisciplinary topics. Faculty who teach in the Source Project will enable their students to discover sources, ask questions, and produce original projects that express their findings to audiences inside and outside of the classroom. The intent of the program is to include students in the excitement of research and creative work from their first days as a college student to increase their capacity to be curious, independent learners over the course of their undergraduate career.
The External Scholarships and Undergraduate Research Center offers Source Project faculty support to develop, teach and collaborate on new course ideas. We provide financial support to enable teaching outside of one’s teaching obligations, including extra service or research stipends for external mentors. (In order for a Source Project course to count toward one's teaching obligations, the faculty member's chair and college need to be consulted and approve teaching in the Source Project.) We are flexible to individual circumstances. We help faculty access interactive teaching spaces, enable publication and presentation venues for students, and assist in arranging guest speakers or other ways to connect your classroom to the outside world. Source Project faculty meet regularly with each other and the Program Coordinator to troubleshoot and share ideas.
The Source Project, piloted in 2018-19 with two course sequences in material culture and human rights, has now grown to ten research streams in the fall of 2024. Faculty in all colleges and professional schools are welcome to propose ideas. Preference will be given to courses that can become embedded in the undergraduate curriculum as part of a major or minor.
The first step in proposing a sequence of research courses is to contact Source Project Program Coordinator Caroline Antalek (cantalek@binghamton.edu) with questions or ideas. We invite you to submit a proposal on a rolling basis, with the anticipation of teaching in a fall semester at least a year out.
Submit a proposal that responds to the following prompts to cantalek@binghamton.edu:
- Description of the course sequence;
- Statement of interest in teaching this course sequence and how it builds on your teaching and research interests and experience;
- Ideas for potential undergraduate research projects and dissemination of these projects;
- Major, minor and/or general education credits that your courses would fulfill, including any potential crosslist, and the contribution of your proposed courses to your department or program's curricular plan;
- Proposed timeline for course development and teaching, and preference for inload teaching or extra service (please plan around other leave requests, or if uncertain, please disclose tentative leave based on pending applications or plans).
