Knowledge Design: What should or could knowledge look like in the 21st century?

This seminar/studio hybrid explores the shapes and forms that knowledge production is assuming in an array of disciplines, from media studies to digital humanities to various domains of design practice to the natural sciences. Each week will be devoted to a separate domain of experimental practice with distinguished guests from both inside and outside of Harvard joining the seminar to talk about their own processes of research design, knowledge creation, presentation, and publication. The aims of the course are: a) to expose participating students to these emerging practices and to leading practitioners, b) to offer an opportunity for sustained critical reflection regarding the strengths and weaknesses of both novel and traditional models, c) to provide hands-on experience with some of the techniques and practices that are involved, and d) to serve as a catalyst for innovative thinking regarding participants’ future or ongoing work. The course is built around the redesign of a classic or authoritative work from the student's own field of specialization.

This course is jointly listed as FAS COMPLIT 279.