Re-visiting Our Goals at the Ronin Institute

At the Ronin Institute, we’ve been thinking a lot about our institutional purpose, and how we can make sure that we stay on track. Here are some things that we try to keep in mind:  Our Vision The Ronin Institute is reinventing academia, but without the academy. The key word there is “reinventing”. It’s actually …

Statement on the Protests in Response to the Murder of George Floyd

By now, you have probably read statements from various organizations addressing the protests currently happening across the United States. It is hard to know what an appropriate institutional response is. I am skeptical of the artifice of a legal corporate entity expressing an opinion. Plus, these institutional statements tend to be bland and hedging, denouncing …

Empowering the Ronin Community

It’s been a while between posts on the Ronin Institute Blog, and in between this post and the last one, the Covid-19 crisis has touched the lives of every one of us across the Ronin Institute and beyond. As a largely remotely-based community, we hope to help fill in those physical distancing gaps by providing …

What do our scholars know? Find out at Blogs of the Ronin

Almost since the beginning of the Ronin Institute we had – what used to be called back in the aughts – a “blogroll” – of all Research Scholar blogs.   As part of last year’s site refresh – the “Blogs of the Ronin” are now properly displayed sidebars.   We also have a new dedicated page …

Nurturing the Ecosystem

Ronin Institute Research Scholars Alex Lancaster, Anne Thessen, and Arika Virapongse have written an excellent article presenting a new perspective on the structure of academia. They argue in favor of abandoning the idea of the career “pipeline” in favor of an “ecosystem” metaphor that allows for a diversity of models of what a “career” looks …

New seminar video on the philosophy, goals and values of the Ronin Institute

As we noted in a previous post, the Ronin Institute has started a YouTube channel  featuring videos from our seminar series. Recently Ronin Founder, Jon Wilkins, presented an in-depth overview of our principles and values in honor of the sixth anniversary of the founding of the Institute. It’s up now on YouTube: You can also …

Ronin Institute launches YouTube channel

The Ronin Institute has launched its own YouTube channel! We’re posting our videos from the Ronin Institute seminar series there. It also includes playlists of videos that feature Ronin Institute Research Scholars and their work, such as symposium panels, performances, TV or web interviews, as well as presentations at Ronin events such as Unconferences. You …

Performance and collaboration: creating new scientific ecosystems at CESTEMER

The Cultivating Ensembles in STEM Education and Research (CESTEMER) was held at the Goodman Theater in downtown Chicago on September 15-17, 2017. Initiated by Raquell Holmes and improvscience in 2012, it brings together a diverse mixture of scientists, artists, humanists and performers to discuss and discover new ways of doing science in groups. I attended …

Lancaster at CESTEMER

Good news Chicago! This weekend, from September 15-17, is ImprovScience’s CESTEMER conference, at the Goodman Theater (http://www.cestemer.org/). From their description: What happens at CESTEMER? This innovative conference brings together faculty, graduate students, K-12 educators and professionals in STEM and art fields who are exploring, practicing, and researching performance in science. CESTEMER advances, among these diverse …