Studies in Professional Practice: Inquiry and Research for Transformation

Catalog description

This course is designed for students who seek to bring about transformation. Using inquiry and research as the vehicle for intellectual growth and the development of self, the semester is dedicated to bringing forward the voices of emerging landscape architects thereby enhancing the efficacy of ambitions in the context of our professional milieu. This is the beginning of a lifelong practice. Whether embarking on a first-time journey of research and inquiry or continuing an established trajectory of research, the cohort works together in dialogue offering mutual support and peer review during lively and probing weekly seminar discussions and presentations. Topics of research and the development of the research questions are explored during the first half of the semester and are refined and crystalized in the second half, including the expansion of an in-depth literature review and the design of the research. Because the researcher can likely never be fully separated from the research, this semester long investigation becomes a powerful mechanism for developing voices of leadership directed toward positive multi-scalar transformations.