Michele+RootBernstein++Nick+Sousanis


 * CS41. Michele Root-Bernstein & Nick Sousanis **, moderated by **Patricia D. Stokes** – //Haiku and Comics: A conversation about Constraints and the Creative Process//

May 26 Thursday 2:45-3:30 PM HM 138

Presenters will engage in a moderated discussion concerning the resonance and intersection of the creative process in haiku and comics and how introducing constraints opens space for creative discovery. Grounding the theoretical through examples drawn from their respective practices, the presenters will seek insights into the creative process more generally. Affiliation/Bio: Michigan State University (Adjunct Faculty, Dept. of Theatre), rootber3@msu.edu. For more info, please refer to CS40. Co-presenter: Nick Sousanis, Teachers College, Columbia University (doctoral student), nsousanis@gmail.com. For more info on Nick, please refer to the Conference Committee page of the program. Co-presenter: Patricia D. Stokes, Barnard College, Columbia University, Professor of Psychology, pstokes@barnard.edu. For more info, please refer to CS50.

Affiliation/Bio: Michigan State University (Adjunct Faculty, Dept. of Theatre), rootber3@msu.edu. Michele Root-Bernstein studies creative imagination across the arts and sciences. With her husband Robert Root-Bernstein, she is co-author of //Sparks// //of Genius, The Thirteen Thinking Tools of the World's Most Creative People// (Houghton Mifflin, 1999), as well as numerous articles on body thinking, polymathy and creative education. Together, Michele and Bob lecture, consult and present workshops. Recently, they delivered the opening keynote speech at the May 2010 UNESCO 2nd World Conference on Arts Education in Seoul. They blog on creativity at . Michele received a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1975 and a Ph.D. in history from Princeton University in 1981. Her first book, //Boulevard Theater and Revolution in Eighteenth-Century Paris// won the Sierra Book Award for Best Book from the Western Association of Women Historians in 1985. She also co-authored //Honey, Mud, Maggots and Other Medical Marvels// (Houghton Mifflin, 1997), a look at the creative use of folk remedies in modern hospital settings. In addition to her scholarship, Michele has published creative non-fiction and writes haiku. Featured as an emerging haiku poet in //A New Resonance, 6//, she appears in haiku journals across the U.S. and Canada. Michele has taught poetry and prose in elementary, secondary and university classrooms. As a Kennedy Center teaching artist, she co-presents a writing/dancing workshop offered through the John F. Kennedy Center's Partners in Education Program. Currently an adjunct faculty member at Michigan State University, Michele is part of an interdisciplinary research team investigating connections between arts practice, innovation and economic development. In solo work, she studies the invention of imaginary worlds in childhood and adulthood, and the role of that worldplay in cultivating creative giftedness.
 * Nick Sousanis ** is a doctoral candidate at Teachers College, Columbia University. His dissertation on “unflattening,” centers on the importance of curiosity in learning and will be undertaken entirely in comic book format. Prior to his arrival in New York, he was heavily involved in Detroit’s arts community where among other things he co-founded www.thedetroiter.com, an arts and cultural web-magazine; chaired the **Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit (CAID) **; and served as the founding director of the University of Michigan’s **Work : Detroit Gallery **. Sousanis is also the biographer of legendary Detroit artist Charles McGee. His philosophical comics have appeared in books on education, including “Dear Maxine” and “Narrative Inquiry,” both from Teachers College Press. Samples of his work can be seen at www.spinweaveandcut.com.