Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry, Vice Provost and Dean of the College of Undergraduate Studies, is joined by Interdisciplinary Studies lecturer Dr. Sharon Woodill to discuss Dr. Woodill’s journey from music to academia, her love of connecting with students, and why interdisciplinarity is essential in our approach to education.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry
Hello everyone, this is Academically Speaking. I’m Dr. Theodorea Bettina Berry, Vice Provost and Dean for the College of Undergraduate Studies here at the University of Central Florida. And today, as we continue to not only celebrate our faculty, but also honor extraordinary women during Women’s History Month, we have with us today, Dr. Sharon Woodill. Dr. Woodil joined the University of Central Florida as a lecturer in Interdisciplinary Studies in fall of 2016. Dr. Woodill is an interdisciplinary scholar with an eclectic academic background. We’ll talk a little bit more about that. She holds a PhD in interdisciplinary studies with a concentration in Philosophy and Religious Studies, from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. She holds a Master of Arts degree in Gender and Women’s Studies, and a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors in music, jazz piano. Her research interests include religion, gender, and sexuality, science and religion, feminist theory, atheism and secularism and interdisciplinary methodologies. Dr. Woodill is also the recipient of the UCF Research Incentive award. Welcome, Dr. Woodill.
Dr. Sharon Woodill
Thank you very much. Thank you for having me.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry
And thank you for joining us. This is going to be an interesting conversation, because I’m seeing some overlaps between our academic careers in our trajectory. So I’m fascinated to hear some of your thoughts. And so as we think about some of the things that you have done, tell us a little bit more about how you ventured into music and then segued, from music to women and gender studies, and then to interdisciplinary studies.
Dr. Sharon Woodill
Well, my academic career actually didn’t start until my late 20s. And I’d hadn’t I from from high school, I just went right to work. So I was a late comer to academia. And when I started, I was you know, very scared and hesitant, and I as a mature student, and I thought I had been a piano player my whole life. I have played piano ever since I could remember actually. I played in church and then I started taking piano lessons and I did in Canada, what’s called the Royal Conservatory of Music. That’s the classical program. And so when I decided I would start taking some classes, I was terrified. And I thought, well, the only thing I can really do is music. I said, Well, I’ve you know, there were sort of two narratives in my household growing up. And one narrative was you had to be really, really smart to go to university, or university was for people who, you know, didn’t want to work and didn’t want to get a real job. So these two narratives kind of held me back for a long time. And then when I finally got the courage to try a couple of courses, these you know, saying, well, the only thing that I’m not really smart enough for all those other things. And so I thought, Well, I’ll try music. And so I did a classical what would be equivalent to an AAA degree there, like a classical diploma at a community college. And then I decided to go on to my bachelor’s degree. And so I switched over actually, to jazz piano. I’d always played by ear, playing in our church and, and our family was always very musical. So we always had lots of hymn sing. So playing by ear was just what I’ve done my whole life. And so jazz was sort of a natural transition for me, it was not very difficult at all. And in terms of, conceptually, so I started out in music, but then in about the second year, two things really happened. Well they both were the same thing. One, I realized number one, that in this sea of these caliber musicians, I’m not sure that I quite had what it took to be that kind of a musician, you know, performing and gigging and stuff like that. And the other thing is, I put my toe in the water of other academic areas, like sociology and psychology, and I loved it. And I was really good at it. I surprised myself. So those two narratives got challenged. I had to work hard, and I could actually do it. And so I decided I would finish that degree, but I would take enough electives to sort of catapult me into another direction sort of move me into another direction. And primarily the psychology and the sociology courses that I took, really, they tended to be Women’s Studies courses. And so I decided to sort of try to set myself up to move into another area and ended up going into Gender and Women’s Studies. And in that degree I studied the whole feminist science studies, that was my primary area of work, ecological feminism, and from there, I still wanted to pursue this whole feminist science study area, and ended up going into my PhD with a supervisor who sort of saw my work and my master’s degree, and even though I really didn’t have a proper philosophy background, she was in the philosophy department, she took me under her wing and brought me up to speed in the areas that I needed to be brought up to speed with, and then shepherded me through my PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies. Which I can’t think of another place where I –it feels like second nature to me to be here. So that was my, you know, that was my sort of zigzag journey to where I am now.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry
So I’m, I’m super fascinated, because I also started out as a music major and as an undergrad and with my primary instrument was voice. But my secondary instrument was percussion. And I really found my way through a lot of different experiences as an undergrad. And so one of the things that you learn along the way, is that regardless of what you think you’re really good at, having access to all kinds of things to learn, is a wonderful experience for an undergraduate student and, and all these light bulbs that turn on for you that you didn’t even know existed until your until you have an opportunity to study these things. And so I think a lot of undergraduate students, including the two of us sort of had the opportunity to explore all of these other things. And to really get an opportunity to figure out what we were really good at, in addition to the thing that we thought we were good at.
Dr. Sharon Woodill
Yeah, yeah, I think that’s a part of it, it is challenging those narratives that we encounter, right? And then allowing ourselves to, you know, to step out into those scary areas as well. I remember my first English course I had to take and the first essay I had to write. I was standing over the dishwasher, and I was crying, and I was like, I’m never going to make this. But even amidst all of that, you know, those narratives, you’re not smart enough for this, blah, blah, blah, you just put one foot in front of the other, just take one little step. And then the next thing, you know, you have an essay, and then the next thing, you know, you’re doing okay, you know, and then, you know, the positive feedback from the professor’s as well, you know, the support the encouragement, and I think those were really, really significant to, you know, help us help me discover what it is I really feel passionate about. Yeah. And I think it’s important for undergraduates to have that freedom. That’s what I like about our degree, actually, it gives them that, that that breadth to to dip their toe into the waters of different areas and sort of figure out for themselves.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry
What are the things that I want to know more about. So I’m curious because as someone who studied music, I actually have a background in classical music and so I was super fascinated by many of the 17th and 18th century composers, some 19th century composers, particularly in relationship to vocal music, which tended to be mostly arias and operas. But I discovered in my pursuit of my music degree that I was a terrible actress. So opera was not for me at all. So I’m curious as to how jazz became your thing?
Dr. Sharon Woodill
Well, it’s not so much jazz itself, it’s that freedom to improvise. That’s what actually drew me into into, it wasn’t necessarily the music or the genre itself. It’s I too did that whole, you know, the first one was in classical, so I did that whole, you know, you have to learn it, and you have to get it right. And I always struggle with getting it right. And then suddenly, when I sort of discovered that there’s actually a whole, there’s actually a whole sphere where you were encouraged to try things out and to get it wrong and figure it out. And that was just, that was freedom for me. So it wasn’t necessarily the genre or the style it was that, well, it was that freedom to explore and to try things out and to improvise. But the other thing that I love about jazz, sort of comes from my background, playing in church and hymn sing or whatever: I love connecting with other people. And that feeling of playing with people instead of for people. That’s what I love. And that’s what really drew me, you know, over into that sphere of music. So it could be blues, it could be jazz, it could be folk, it could be country, it could be gospel, actually the genre. Yeah, that that connection and that freedom. That’s what I that’s what really hooked me.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry
So I’m going to segue a little bit, as I think about this notion of connection. And the way in which our work as college professors is not only connected to students, but also connected to communities. And I want to talk about that in the context of research, right, and the kind of research that you’re doing. And so tell us a little bit more about your research.
Dr. Sharon Woodill
Well, the biggest thing that I’m focusing on right now, actually, is well interdisciplinarity itself. So we have this concept of interdisciplinarity, that sort of saturates all of academia. And it’s what I call the mixology version of interdisciplinarity. And it’s this idea that, you know, you add a little of this discipline, and yet a little of this discipline, and you shake it all up, and voila, you have this lovely little academic cocktail. And that’s great. And that’s important. But I think the real power and promise of interdisciplinarity is this idea that it is grounded in this framework of complexity. And complexity requires what I call an epistemology of connection. Yes, it’s a way it’s not just a matter of adding things together. It’s something that we produce in communities of communities of learners, communities of knowers communities of, of doers, communities of thinkers. And so this idea that we are isolated individual, cognition machines, that’s great. But I think at this day and age where we’re seeing just the proliferation of information you know, everywhere we go, if we can’t, I think it’s, it’s this ability to this interdisciplinarity, this ability to learn together to, you know, together, we are more than the sum of our parts. And I think that’s the real power and promise of interdisciplinary. So my research has been focusing on articulating that theoretical framework clearly. And moreover, in especially since COVID, where everything has been moved into the online sphere, a lot of these skills of interdisciplinarity, are developed through human interaction. So the question I’ve been really focusing on how do we develop these skills, these competencies of interdisciplinarity, in an environment that is online that prohibits in many ways, connection? Actually really moves us to a, I would say, a very highly disembodied way of knowing. How can we facilitate the core competencies of interdisciplinarity, perspective taking, critical thinking integration, which rely on empathy, open mindedness, intellectual courage, the things that we usually learn from interacting with each other? How can we do that in an online digital environment? So that’s been the primary question I’ve been working on for the last –well since COVID. Since I’ve been forced to figure it out. Yeah. So that’s primarily what my research is, is focusing on these days.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry
And it’s a really important piece of work to consider, because we have a lot of people who are using the term interdisciplinary in relationship to the teaching or their research. And when I asked people to tell me more about what they’re doing, it’s like, oh, well, I’m the psychologist, working with the sociologist, who’s also working with someone in medicine and we’re doing interdisciplinary work. And I’m like, hmm, that sounds more like multidisciplinary work than interdisciplinary work. And I didn’t say, how does that look like interdisciplinary work, what factors or what attributes exist that make the work interdisciplinary rather than just you having this background or field and this other person working from another field who are coming together to solve a problem, right. And oftentimes, I find myself in a group of people having to distinguish the differences between interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and transdisciplinary. Right? And I’m wondering, is this something that you’ve encountered and how do you distinguish the differences in those things?
Dr. Sharon Woodill
I mean, if you were to look at the literature and Interdisciplinary Studies, they’re gonna focus a lot on making sure these definitions are clear and distinct. But honestly, I’ve done some looking myself at different journals, and it depends on what field you’re looking at. A lot of times these terms actually are interchangeable. They interchange them all the time. And so, I guess, you know, I could say this is what I think the specific definitions are, but I think I would actually circumvent your question a little bit and say that I’m not actually concerned about what the definitions are. What I’m really concerned with is how we do knowledge. Do we do knowledge in a way that is life affirming, that encourages flourishing, that is health promoting to ourselves and to our environment in the earth, right? And whatever that is, that’s interdisciplinarity. So I want to start backwards, I want to define I want to do the thing first, and have the definitions follow rather than set the definitions and make and have that set our trajectory? If that makes sense?
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry
No, that makes perfect sense. So now we’re going to sort of move a little bit differently and think about this notion of interdisciplinarity in the context of teaching. So tell us first, why do you like teaching?
Dr. Sharon Woodill
So I’m going to say something that I probably shouldn’t say to my dean. Truth be told, I don’t like teaching. What I love is connecting and that’s what I want to do with my students. I don’t want to be the person up there with all kinds of information in some position of power. What I love doing is being with people, you know, my students, I want to be able to show them different ways of seeing, I want to know and see their different ways of seeing. And together, I hope that we can develop this capacity to see the world from multiple points of view, right to utilize these points of view, in different ways to, you know, to do good in the world. Now, maybe that’s teaching. But that certainly, I don’t like the idea. I don’t like seeing myself as a teacher, because I like to see myself as maybe a facilitator in these in these communities. I don’t like teaching, but I love connecting. And that’s what I try to do in my classes.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry
Yeah and that makes perfect sense. Because, you know, now, my background is in curriculum theory. And so I’m always thinking about the ways in which people engage in knowledge, production, knowledge, construction, knowledge acquisition, and, you know, what informs or builds upon the knowledge that they already have? And how does that get facilitated in the context of their identities, their spaces, the places, and all those things that individual students see as important, right? That’s going to be different for every single person sitting in the room, and how you connect to them, right? And the ways in which you find that connection so that students can acquire and construct knowledge is going to be different.
Dr. Sharon Woodill
Right. And in within interdisciplinary studies, in particular, we don’t have it what this, it’s what we call content agnostic, meaning we don’t have a specific set of information that we’re trying to convey, we don’t have, there’s not a cannon that they need students need to be familiar with. What there is, there is a process that we are trying to show, right, and this process really only, it’s like any other skill, it’s like learning to play an instrument. You can read all the textbooks you want, but until you’re sitting in the group, with the people, doing the work and making the mistakes, you can’t, you know, it’s a fully embodied experience. It’s not. And so, teaching in that way is it’s you know, it’s not there’s no specific set of information. So I think that’s probably why I shy away from at least the term teacher because it sort of harkens back to that traditional, you know, the knower stands at the
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry
front of the room. Dumping knowledge in your brain. You know Paulo Freire notion of the banking system, right.
Dr. Sharon Woodill
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry
No, but that makes perfect sense. So talk to me about what you’re currently teaching. What you’ve been assigned to teach.
Dr. Sharon Woodill
So I do teach the cornerstone, a capstone of interdisciplinary studies. So the cornerstone ideally will introduce students to the ideas around interdisciplinarity. And hopefully, they will be able to employ some of these ideas, these competencies as they go throughout their degree. And then when they come back into the Capstone, as they’re finishing their degree, the ideas and they will apply these competencies to a real world complex problem. interdisciplinarity is primarily designed for addressing real world complex problems. And so in our capstone, what we want to do what I want to do, I want to do two things, I want to help them be able to develop a language around their degrees so they can articulate what they actually have done and what they can do. But I’ll try and make them do a project, what I call an interdisciplinary is an interdisciplinary impact project where they actually have to apply the competencies to a real world complex problem. And the idea is that when they’re getting off the degree they get into an interview or you know, they’re telling their parents what they studied. They can say here, look, see, this is what I can do with this degree. Here’s how I can use these competencies and they have a concrete example of of what they’ve accomplished. So that’s what I tried to do in the cornerstone class. And then, along with that, I have had the great privilege of being able to develop and teach courses in our Diversity Studies track and our Diversity Studies programs, which overlap with the ones that I’m teaching generally are Environmental Diversity Leadership and Environmental studies. So they function as courses, electives within the Diversity Studies track, but they also count as electives within the Environmental Studies track, because then they require an Environmental Humanities course usually, and there hasn’t been a whole lot of selection available to our students. So I’ve had the great privilege of being able to develop a few classes that have been able to fit meet that need, also draws on my work in Gender and Women’s Studies that I did in my master’s degree a fair bit. So I’ve been very happy to be able to do bring that to the table.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry
Excellent. So in talking a little bit more about our Diversity Studies Leadership track, what kinds of things have you seen the students have been interested to know more about in this area?
Dr. Sharon Woodill
Well, to be very honest, everything, every topic. The courses are full, the enrollment are high, there’s generally a waiting list. So it seems to me that there’s a hunger for it. And you know, every topic that I cover in the course seems to be met with great, there’s a lot of chatter, which to me is an indication that it’s been I don’t know about, well received, but it’s being received and being they’re talking, they’re discussing, they’re debating, which is precisely what we want. Right.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry
Absolutely. We want to hear all perspectives.
Dr. Sharon Woodill
I don’t have a set I and I say this right from the beginning. There’s nothing that I say or talk about that I consider to be gospel, it’s all topics on the table for us to discuss. These are real-world problems. These are real-world, complex problems that we have to negotiate. And so if we can’t do it here, what are we doing here?
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry
Right, and our goal is to help our students to be able to engage with each other as citizens, right? And so that means being able to see things from multiple perspectives.
Dr. Sharon Woodill
And I have a very clear cut framework for the way I approach Diversity Studies. And it’s, it’s simple. And it’s this idea that, you know, do unto others as you would have done unto you. Love your neighbor as yourself, no matter who they are, no matter who the other is. And I think when you start with that framework, it’s I’m not sure how you can. I’m not sure what I mean, I know it’s difficult. It is difficult sometimes to love our neighbor, but if that’s your framework, that’s your foundation. I think it’s the right place to start.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry
Oh, yes, absolutely. That’s a really great way to sort of engage our students in any topic. Really.
Dr. Sharon Woodill
Yeah, you’re absolutely right. And it they are all housed within the framework of Interdisciplinary Studies in a broader context. And so the core competencies perspective, taking critical thinking, integration, those are the core competencies, I always translate these for my students, how you see, how you think, how you do, right? This is how you do knowledge in this area, but this is actually how you do good in the world. And when we are dealing with these complex problems, we I think, are encouraging and enabling our students to take these out beyond the classroom and apply them, you know, in whatever circles, they find themselves, which is I, you know, I think one of our goals is in higher education, right?
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry
No, absolutely. And so that makes me think, you know, we start from these two really key places in relationship to learning anything, it makes me wonder about this notion of empathy, right? Because I would think you would have to be able to exercise some empathy in order to put those two major concepts at play in a classroom environment or in any environment. So based on your professional experience, do you think that as a society that we do have empathy?
Dr. Sharon Woodill
So I thought a lot about this because I talk a lot about empathy and my courses, and I think individually, we are empathetic, I don’t think we can help it. I think we’re humans, we are that way. But I also think we are in a society that is, in my opinion, suffering or on the verge of suffering from epidemic of disconnection, meaning that you know we are, a lot of our communications are filtered through devices, we, we are, I find that we’re very isolated from each other. Politically, we seem to have, you know, two camps and neither of the twain shall meet type of thing. And I feel that we are sort of constantly, I feel like our culture is just pushing us into all of our individual silos. And I think it’s really, I think that’s becoming a bit of a barrier for us in terms of exerciseing the types of empathy that I think we actually all have. Because we all know, you know, when when you see, you know. The other day I was, I was coming down the highway and I saw somebody was on on the side of the road, their car broke down. And I watched the guy who was, we were stopped traffic, and so I watched the guy in front get out, and take a bottle of water, and hand and pass it off to the guy who stopped, jump in his car, and keep going. I mean, there’s no political, there’s no religious divide.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry
No. Nobody cared! Any of those things about where he lives, what kind of car her was driving, any of those things. You’re sitting out here, it’s hot, you’re waiting for someone to help you, hear some water.
Dr. Sharon Woodill
Right. And that, to me, I think, is part of our basic humanity. And I so I do think that we are still empathetic. But I think that given the you know, the, the things that society that their culture is, is bringing on us, which has been good in many, many ways. It’s also causing this sort of crisis of connection. And so I think, you know, in terms of, you know, doing knowledge and what it is that that that we need to do, I think we need to find ways of this goes back to my research, how can we connect? How can we rekindle that human connection in a world that’s been mitigated by digital technologies almost all the time? It’s good, it’s helped us in a lot of ways. But we still need to find a way to build it. Yeah, to build that embodied lived experience in this digital world.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry
So in thinking about that, and then thinking about the work that you do, I’ll also have to think about the kind of educational climate that we now have, locally and nationally. Do you think an interdisciplinary approach to learning is important in our current climate?
Dr. Sharon Woodill
I would take it further and say it’s essential. I, in fact, I think if we don’t learn how to do this, I’m not sure I mean, our society definitely is progressing in terms of science and technology. But to what end, if we can’t figure out how to negotiate these very fundamental problems of being different, right, of being able to, to build our fundamental human experiences, you know, if we are so caught up in in crisis and distress and war and political strife, I mean, what’s the good of all the science and technology in the world if we can’t live together, right? And so, in interdisciplinarity, in my mind, in the way that I advocate, is this what I call epistemology of connection. In fact, I don’t know if you know this, but I am writing a book, I just signed a book contract. And the title of the book is called “Interdisciplinarity and the Art of Human Connection,” and these are exactly the arguments I’m making. Not only is it important, it is essential, I think, given the just the intensity of the information that we are now required to navigate and interface with, we need at least we have to go we need some capacity to do that, and still figure out how we can live together.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry
Absolutely. And so we know that, as you mentioned earlier, technology has really helped us to advance in a lot of ways and, and in a lot of ways, has improved the quality of our lives, and, to a certain extent, has really changed the way that we live our lives and to include now artificial intelligence, right, which is a hot topic on our college campuses these days, with the evolution of things like the chat GPT. So, in thinking about the ways in which technology has changed our lives, and particularly on college campuses, how do you think AI will change the way that we teach and learn?
Dr. Sharon Woodill
Well, I wouldn’t claim to be an expert necessarily. I wouldn’t claim to be an expert. at all, actually in AI. But what I will say, given that I have been looking at the ways in which emerging technologies might help us facilitate this project of connection in the digital age, I think I think it’s, I think it has potential to one, I think it has potential to free us up from doing some of the tasks that will keep us separated and allow us more time to get to be together and to build knowledge that accrues as we interact. I think it also has the potential of providing tools for us to create much more realistic simulated experiences. And I know there’s going to be a whole lot of ethical things that we’re going to have to sort out when that comes. But perhaps that will be a benefit. One of the drawbacks I see though, is I think we risk the translating our education, you even further down the disembodied path, right? We seem to have this idea, this legacy idea of education as being this thing that happens up in our head, and only in our head, and the body is only there to the extent it can transport our brains around, right. And I think that’s a really, that’s a really impoverished view of knowledge and education. And so I think AI may, you know, risk may may come with the risk of making it, you know, taking us further down that path. But I think it’s going to be it’s going to depend on on how we employ it, how we develop it, and how we develop our ethics around and I think, which I think is all the work that I think lots of people are, are doing as we speak. So I’m confident in our community of scholars and community and I’m confident in people actually, so I think, I think we will, I’m optimistic that it will be a benefit.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry
OK so now we are going to get into what I called a speed round version of this conversation and this is where our viewers and listeners will get to learn a little bit more about you and some of the things that you were interested in so we’re going to start out by asking a few simple questions. What’s your favorite color?
Dr. Sharon Woodill
Blue
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry
Favorite song?
Dr. Sharon Woodill
My favorite song is called Moore and it’s by a folk singer from Canada and it’s about I want more love. I want more stars, I want more of all of the things that are part of this human experience.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry
Excellent. Favorite musical artist?
Dr. Sharon Woodill
My favorite musical artist it’s been a green he’s a pianist.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry
Favorite movie?
Dr. Sharon Woodill
Favorite movie? I’m not a big movie person. I like documentaries oh one that I saw a couple years ago that I actually really liked. It’s called the great big farm and it’s a movie about the Permaculture movement and about the whole earth and using everything that’s natural for a a sustainable lifestyle.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry
Favorite book?
Dr. Sharon Woodill
My favorite book of all time is called “The Web of Life” by Fritjof Capra and it’s a theory book about complexity theory and it changed my trajectory in my undergrad. It’s in that sat on my desk for a couple of months until a snowstorm when there was nothing else to do or read, I picked it up, put it down and then wrote my honors thesis about it.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry
Excellent. Favorite author?
Dr. Sharon Woodill
My favorite author. Jidda Krishnamurti. He’s a philosopher, an Indian philosopher.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry
Three words your students would use to describe you?
Dr. Sharon Woodill
Different, enthusiastic, and kind.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry
Okay. Three words you believe your colleagues might use to describe you?
Dr. Sharon Woodill
Inventive, encouraging, and resourceful.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry
Excellent. Favorite thing to do when you have free time?
Dr. Sharon Woodill
Dr. Sharon Woodill
Play tennis.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry
Play tennis.
Dr. Sharon Woodill
Was I supposed to think about that?
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry
Who’s your favorite tennis player?
Dr. Sharon Woodill
I don’t know I’m enjoying watching Coco Gauff. She’s inspiring.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry
Yeah, she is inspiring indeed. OK. And favorite season?
Dr. Sharon Woodill
Spring.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry
Spring.
Dr. Sharon Woodill
It’s so hopeful.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry
Yeah. Excellent. All right. We know that Florida is one of your favorite travel spots. Are there other areas that stand out for you places that you’d like to go?
Dr. Sharon Woodill
Well, my favorite place that I’ve been to so far is Utah. I spent some time hiking there and I just couldn’t get enough. The landscape is so diverse, so colorful, so intriguing. I think I could spend a lot more time there.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry
OK. Excellent so I bought a couple of months ago I started watching a show on HBO Max called “If We’re Being Honest With Laverne Cox” it is an interview type talk show one on one conversation that she has with a variety of different people and she always ends her interviews by asking if there is anything that I didn’t ask that I should’ve asked so I’m going to ask you is there anything that I didn’t ask that I should’ve asked?
Dr. Sharon Woodill
I don’t know about that, but one of the things I do like to always emphasize, goes back to the work that I do hear as a lecturer at UCF and I work in interdisciplinary studies. I always want to emphasize this idea that I don’t compartmentalize what I do in the classroom, what I do in my research, and what I do in my day-to-day life. So the principles that I have adopted of interdisciplinary studies, empathy, open, mindedness, tolerance of ambiguity, embracing of diversity. These are all necessary for doing really good interdisciplinary work but more importantly, and this is what I want for my life and this is what I want for my students. More importantly these things are good and necessary for doing good in the world, and ultimately I’m not so concerned with whether or not my students remember specific definitions. What I really want for them to be able to utilize these capacities in all of their areas of life to do good in the world. So I don’t try to employ these just in my academic work. These are principles that I try to actually live by and so more than anything I hope, rather than teach anybody anything, I hope I inspire people to employ these values you know in our communities, and our grocery stores, and our library, and our churches, and our community centers, and yes, in our academic work.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry
Yeah, you know that is a wonderful way to see the work we do as scholars and one of my favorite scholars who is the dean of the law school at Iowa State University, Adrien Wing would describe that as a multiplicative practice, and talks about the ways in which we live every day, and the identities that we carry in the things that we learn translate themselves into every space that we’re in and benefiting other people along the way. I remember being a doctor at student reading that work that she had done and talking about this notion of multiplicative practices and thought this is it right here I don’t wanna be just a college professor I want to be someone who can have an impact on a variety of different aspects of students lives. And what you’re describing fits so neatly into that notion I really appreciate the time that we’ve had to talk, to learn more about you and your research, about the ways in which you facilitate learning and knowledge acquisition in your classrooms notice I didn’t say teaching? In the ways in which you value this notion of interdisciplinary. Thank you so much for joining us.
Dr. Sharon Woodill
Thank you so much for having me.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry
And thank you so much to our listeners for joining us today. This is academically speaking with Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry. Have a great day.
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