Teaching Through the Arts and the Celebration: The Final Meeting of the Instructional Innovation Fellowship

Bo Kim’s “Describe as Data” workshop is an immersive, hands-on experience embedded in the undergraduate course Biological Representation in Visual Language. The workshop challenges students to engage in paired exercises that blur the line between scientific observation and artistic interpretation. The activity is simple:  one student verbally describes a biological image, while their partner, without ever seeing the image, draws the image based solely on spoken descriptions. Together, they reflect on what was communicated, what was missed, and how meaning was constructed through language and visuals.

Why “Describe as Data”

Bo developed this workshop in response to the fragmented ways in which disciplines approach data and description. In the sciences, objectivity and precision are often emphasized, while in the arts, metaphor and emotion are equally valued. Bo’s workshop asks a fundamental question: What happens when we treat description itself as a form of data creation? In doing so, students practice attention, patience, and interpretation. These are skills essential across disciplines.

How the Workshop was Conducted

The workshop was conducted in scaffolded stages:

• Stage 1: Describe as Data 1 introduces description as the first act of research. Students learn that both verbal and visual representations of data reflect different forms of knowing. Describing biological specimens teaches students to notice texture, form, color, and function, not just scientifically, but emotionally and symbolically.

• Stage 2: Describe as Data 2 layers verbal and visual data to create metaphor and analogy. Students ask creative questions (What does this structure remind me of? How can I explain this shape in everyday terms?). These reflections become the foundation for interdisciplinary thinking.

The workshop also included curated image sets, printable worksheets, reflection prompts, and facilitation tips that make it adaptable across disciplines.

Workshop Outcomes

Students reported stronger trust within their learning community, increased empathy, and a deeper understanding of how communication shapes perception. The workshop reinforced that accuracy is not only technical but also relational, which means that it is dependent on how well we listen and how clearly we translate what we see into words and images.
Bo’s approach is a powerful model of how science and art can collaborate in the process of meaning-making. Through verbal-visual dialogue, students come to see description not as passive reporting, but as a deliberate, creative act that generates knowledge.

Aline Gubrium believes that art does not just represent — it acts. In her courses, she uses poetry, drama, zines, and music. Her students explore public health and social justice issues not only through analysis but through creation. Art becomes a way of doing anthropology, public health, and critical inquiry. 

Why Art-Based Teaching

Dr. Gubrium’s pedagogy is grounded in the belief that complex human experiences, such as racism, reproductive injustice, or trauma, cannot be fully understood through data alone. Traditional academic discourse can fail to capture nuance, emotion, or lived realities. Arts-based methods, in contrast, invite students to explore the “conditions of possibility” or how things could be, and imagine transformative futures. Art becomes the vehicle for empathy, disruption, and social reimagination.

How to Use Arts in Teaching

Dr. Gubrium’s courses are structured around thematic modules and multi-modal assignments, including:

• Poetic inquiry 
• Comics and zine making
• Digital storytelling
• Sensory ethnography and dance
• Critical narrative interventions

These methods push students to make connections between individual experiences and broader systems of power. In her Reproductive Justice course, for example, students interrogate cultural assumptions around teen pregnancy or abortion through expressive forms that center voice, story, and community.

Art-Based Teaching provides holistic, emotionally resonant insights into the world. It is process-oriented, focuses on serving communities, and recognizes that social issues are deeply interconnected. It asks students to “see, feel, and know” in new ways — sparking empathetic, multi-layered understanding.