New Brunswick Strategic Planning Proposal

Proposal Title: Language, Imagination, and Meaning Across the Humanities and Computer Sciences Proposal Initiator: Elisabeth Camp (Philosophy), Henry Turner (English), Matthew Stone (Computer Science), Jonah Siegel (English), Ernie Lepore (Philosophy), Nicholas Gaskill (English), Frances Egan (Philosophy), and Colin Jager (English) Primary Contact Name and Phone Number: Henry Turner (646) 861-1127 Primary Contact Email Address: henry.turner@rutgers.edu Primary Strategic Priority/Foundational Element/Integrating Theme Addressed (Select one) _x_ Envision Tomorrow’s University

_x_ Build Faculty Excellence

_x_ Transform the Student Experience

__ Enhance Our Public Prominence

_x_ Strong Core of Sciences and Humanities

_x_ Inclusive, Diverse, and Cohesive Culture

__ Effective and Efficient Infrastructure and Staff

__ Financial Resources Sufficient to Fund Our Aspirations

__ Robust Shared Governance, Academic Freedom, and Effective Communication

__ Cultures, Diversity, and Inequality—Local and Global

__ Improving the Health and Wellness of Individuals and Populations

__ Creating a Sustainable World through Innovation, Engineering, and Technology

_x_ Educating Involved Citizens and Effective Leaders for a Dynamic World

_x_ Creative Expression and the Human Experience

__ Measuring Progress and Defining Success Proposal Abstract (brief summary of the proposal – 250-word limit): The proposal is for a three year interdisciplinary project on a set of major problems that are pre-disciplinary in nature and that unite the Arts, Humanities and the Sciences in the modern university. It is a collaboration jointly sponsored by the Center for Cultural Analysis and the Center for Cognitive Science at Rutgers. Full Proposal Description (5-page limit) [Insert here the full proposal, which should describe in detail a) what is being proposed, b) how the initiative aligns with the University Strategic Plan, c) any additional themes, priorities, and elements addressed, d) who will be involved, e) desired outcomes, and f) anticipated resources to support this initiative.] Language, Imagination, and Meaning Across the Humanities and Computer Sciences

Description and Rationale We are proposing a collaborative research project between the Departments of English, Philosophy, and Computer Science, brought together under the joint-sponsorship of the Center for Cultural Analysis and the Center for Cognitive Science at Rutgers University. The project will explore core questions of language, imagination, and meaning that are pre-disciplinary in nature and that bind together methods, categories, and assumptions that are fundamental to all branches of the University. The purpose of the project is to focus the resources of three especially strong departments in SAS, coordinated through two of the leading interdisciplinary research centers at the University. It has been designed to foster collaborative inquiry across the Humanities and the Sciences so as to model how new strategic alliances might be forged across disciplinary and institutional units at a curricular level as well as at the level of advanced research. Its primary Faculty sponsors are Elisabeth Camp (Philosophy), Henry Turner (English), Matthew Stone (Computer Science), Jonah Siegel (English), Ernie Lepore (Philosophy), Nicholas Gaskill (English), Frances Egan (Philosophy), and Colin Jager (English), with the additional involvement of several faculty and graduate students from English, Philosophy, and Computer Science. The project will be organized around two guiding research questions, which organize each of the three fields we have brought together but which also extend beyond them. Only by working in an interdisciplinary manner can we come to an understanding of these core questions, while at the same time gain insight into the fields that have evolved to make sense of them. These questions lie at the heart of creative expression and the human experience:

1. How do we define language, and how do agents exploit linguistic structures in the creation of meaningful statements? This question also includes problems of creative figurative expression in general and poetic or literary use of language in particular, in which meaning is often not agent-based but results from impersonal structures, forms, and other discursive techniques. How are syntactic, lexical, and discourse structures connected to one another, and how do writers exploit such structures for rhetorical effect? And how might the differing structures of natural and artificial languages generate distinct logics of composition and communication?

2. What is the role of the imagination in creating the forms, models, or artifacts that express meaning? This question is meant to include psychological and philosophical accounts of the imagination, including propositional pretense, phenomenological imaging, and interpretive re-construal, as well as historical accounts of the imagination as a faculty. How do hypothetical statements and counterfactual propositions produce knowledge? How do literary works explore the nature of the imagination as a creative faculty? And how do the imaginative possibilities of written literature differ from the imaginative environments constructed through interactive artificial intelligence systems?

This initiative will contribute to the achievement of a number of priorities laid out in the Strategic Plan. It also aligns with several of the foundational elements identified in the plan and participates centrally in “Creative Expression and the Human Experience.” The innovative cross-disciplinary approach envisioned in this proposal breaks out of traditional field specialties, thereby modeling forms of collaboration across the science, technology, and the humanities of the sort to be anticipated in tomorrow’s university. When top-ranked SAS departments come together in this way, new opportunities emerge for intellectual alignment and for faculty hiring and retention that result in the kind of ground-breaking scholarship that brings international prominence to Rutgers University. Structure of the Project

In 2014-15, an initial working group composed of faculty from English, Philosophy, and Computer Science will meet alternately at the CCA and the CCS to share current research and identify key scholars whose work has been central to defining approaches to the problems of language, imagination and meaning in an interdisciplinary way. A handful of these scholars will be invited to two public symposia, to be jointly-sponsored by the CCA and CCS, in order to map current work and set a direction for program development. In 2015-16, the group will expand to include additional faculty at Rutgers; it will meet more regularly to discuss current scholarship and will convene at least one, and possibly two, undergraduate and / or graduate courses, to be taught by a member of the group in his or her home department and to feature class visits from faculty affiliated with the project. The group will host two additional, smaller scale symposia and prepare for 2016-17. In 2016-17, the group will convene a full-scale research seminar that will meet biweekly at the CCA and CCS. It will be convened by two members of the group and will be constituted by the conveners, six Rutgers faculty, and six graduate students who are working in the area, as well as by two postdoctoral scholars who will be selected in the prior year. The seminar will invite distinguished guests to lead an intensive session exploring the problems of language, imagination, and meaning in Literature, Philosophy, and Computer Science and to model existing institutional programs (majors, minors, centers; cf. the Literature and Philosophy Program at Stanford) that might take root at Rutgers. The CCA and the CSS will again sponsor two large public symposia; through these symposia and the work of the seminar, the group will identify one or more strategic hires at the senior level. These would be prominent figures who could be appointed, and possibly cross-appointed, in the Departments of English, Philosophy, and Computer Science and who could lead in grant writing efforts and in program planning for future years. Draft Budget Year One: $50,000

$30,000 for part time staff member to coordinate the project $10,000 for two public symposia $ 5,000 for distinguished invitations to campus $ 5,000 for course development (research assistants, course materials, etc.)

Year Two: $50,000 $30,000 for part time staff member to coordinate the project

$10,000 for two public symposia $ 5,000 for distinguished invitations to campus $ 5,000 for course development (research assistants, graders, course materials, etc.)

Year Three: $335,000 $ 30,000 for part time staff member to coordinate project $ 42,000 in course releases $138,000 in graduate fellowships $ 25,000 in research funds for participants $ 90,000 for two postdoctoral scholars $ 10,000 for two public symposia Project Total: $435,000

Proposed Measures to Mark Progress or Determine Success [Please explain, in one or two paragraphs, how progress toward achievement of the initiative will be measured and how overall success will be determined.] We will measure our progress by an annual report, compiled by the leading faculty who preside over each year of the project. The report will include an assessment of the year’s programming; the bibliography of research produced and reviewed during the year; a table of associated faculty who participated during the year and of projects that were either initiated during the year, continued, or concluded; a review of courses taught or designed on the themes of the project in all departments; and a census of students who participated in project courses and events. We will measure our success quantitatively, by increase in faculty and student involvement, by numbers of projects and publications, and by an index of collaboration which we will assign to each member of the group that will measure links among project members and their overall impact on each project. We will also measure our success qualitatively, by evaluating the projects undertaken by members of the program, by publication reviews, and by standard RU course assessments. Please save your proposal as a Word document and submit it as an email attachment to NBStratPlanProposals@rutgers.edu by April 15, 2014.