Discover Our Faculty Fellows
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The Road to Entrepreneurial Exploration “The Social Entrepreneurship of Academia” is advertised as a course with an aim of “preparing doctoral students to be resourceful, dynamic faculty [who] create new endeavors.” According to Professor Liora Bresler, who launched the course in 2007, the class is designed as a “place for students to think of what they can become, and what resources they have at their disposal. It is for the curious student—for the one who wants to explore.” Liora Bresler has made a career out of exploration, with her focus resting on the intersections between varying fields of study. At the University of Illinois, Bresler holds joint appointments at the School of Education, the School of Music and the School of Art and Design, and since 2007 has held a visiting professor position at Stockholm University in Sweden, Professor II position at Haugesund /Stord University in Norway, and Honorary Professorship at the Hong Kong Institute of Education. Past projects for Bresler include a College Board/Getty project that examined arts integration into academic curricula in exemplary high schools across the country, as well as a long-term, ethnographic studies of arts curricula in elementaryschools. Her scholarly interests span performing arts studies, curriculum and instruction, anthropology, aesthetics and areas between. For Bresler, her role in academia has never been one that fit neatly inside any single box. As a Faculty Fellow through the Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership, Bresler found a way to combine her areas of expertise into a course which highlights the cross-fertilization of disciplines. Students enrolled in “The Social Entrepreneurship of Academia” come from a wide variety of departments and backgrounds. “Students with interdisciplinary interests seem to benefit the most from this course,” says Bresler. Jeanne Koehler, a PhD candidate in Curriculum and Instruction who recently completed the course, found her experiences in the class helped to change her dissertation, which now focuses on teachers as entrepreneurs. “Because of the class, I am more aware of those engaged in social initiatives and fascinated by how they accomplish a noble vision and start with little to no capital.” For Bresler, this kind of realization is key to the success of the course. While for many the word “entrepreneurship” conjures up images of start-ups and finance, it is students like Koehler who help to reaffirm the motivation behind the curriculum. “I believe that entrepreneurship transcends a particular discipline. Rather, it is a style, a way of doing things,” says Bresler. While Bresler is quick to point out that entrepreneurs and academics have always shared qualities, namely vision, creativity and persistence in a process of learning, it is the goal of creating change that is of greatest interest. Continued student interest in this goal has even prompted Bresler to design a similar course aimed at undergraduate students that would work to heighten their understanding of educational entrepreneurship and promote their entrepreneurial abilities. “In these classes, students get to see what inspires people, what motivates them to do the things they do. In addition to focusing on inspirational educators who made great impact, students listen to each other’s ideas. It legitimizes their own and encourages them to go further.” Koehler agrees. “Academic entrepreneurship can reach to the community at large, bridging what was seen as an ivory tower with the many needs of those in our communities.”
Entrepreneurial course taught by Professor BreslerC&I 507, Intellectual Entrepreneurship in Academia The overall goal of the course is to develop an entrepreneurial perspective of the role of faculty in academia. The three components of the academic endeavor--research, teaching, and service--will be conceptualized as highly entrepreneurial activities. Building on their individual passions and strengths, the course will empower students (prospective faculty) to experience each of these three components of academia along the three entrepreneurial axes: recognize opportunities, acquire resources, and create a new entity of value. Specifically, the course will address the following: 1. Expansion of contents, forms, and audiences in teaching; 2. Choosing research questions for significance and impact, garnering means for effective execution, and creating avenues to bring the fruits of research to society; and 3. Refocusing of academic service as a vehicle for the building and nurturing of intellectual community. This course is motivated by the recognition of unprecedented opportunities to expand the role of academics beyond traditional, often self-imposed boundaries. The crossing of disciplinary boundaries and the ensuing cross-fertilization has generated new disciplines such as computational neuroscience, biophysics, biochemistry, molecular biology, psychological economics, cultural anthropology, and social psychology. Not only do contents of academia change, but also their formats are being shaped by new information technologies, and their audiences expanded. While these trends have evolved over a long period of time, they have vastly accelerated in the last ten years, reinforcing each other. The new opportunities created by these trends can shape research, teaching, and service. In research, we note new questions and directions. Responding to the cross-fertilization of disciplines, teaching invites the creation of new curricula. In attending to new audiences (e.g., minorities, remote students world-wide), teaching can involve the exploration of new structures and media. Service draws on these to build and nurture new intellectual communities. This course is seen as an important part of the education of doctoral students, in preparing them to be resourceful, dynamic faculty, responsive to the needs and opportunities in the field, drawing on their visions, creativity, and skills, to create new endeavors. This course will have three major components, which will be interwoven with a view towards pedagogical impact and student engagement.
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Liora Bresler