SIGCSE 2020 Pre-Symposium Event by the SIGCSE Committee on Computing Education in Liberal Arts Colleges
Contributed by Robert R. Kelley Ph.D., rkelley@bellarmine.edu
Are you willing to facilitate this discussion? Yes
Are there any others whom you would recommend as potential facilitators for this topic? No
As interest in Computer Science has grown over the past 20 years, private, liberal arts institutions have expanded or considered expanding their computer science programs and offerings. At the same time, faculty in traditional liberal arts disciplines such as philosophy, languages, history and art often bristle at the idea of expanding computer science programs because they feel they are too technical and don’t fit well in the liberal arts curriculum. However, in the light of recent work in the Digital Humanities, computer science and traditional humanities disciplines are excellent complements to each other. We posit that developing a framework to encourage and support collaboration between computer science students and students in other majors in the liberal arts is a unique opportunity only a liberal arts institution can provide. This discussion could focus on generating ideas for developing such a framework that liberal arts institutions could use to foster cross-discipline collaboration.