My name is Diane Cline, and I am the director of UC Forward. I have a BA from Stanford in Classics, and an MA and Ph.D. in Classical Archaeology from Princeton. I had a Fulbright to Greece where I lived for three years, and I have taught Classics and Ancient History. I was an Assistant, then Associate Classics professor and archaeologist here at UC (1994-2000) and won the Dolly Cohen Prize for Teaching in 1999. I then went to Washington DC to become an intelligence analyst and cryptolinguist at the NSA (2003-2007), working on national security issues in multidisciplinary teams and learning social network analysis, scenario planning, systems thinking, and other effective approaches for understanding hard problems. I resigned from the Puzzle Palace to became an entrepreneur, opening a small business called Over The Horizon Consulting, LLC (2008-2012) as a graphic recorder and visual practitioner, supporting organizational development consultants and facilitators with visual thinking, by drawing huge murals as notes for strategic planning and innovation workshops with a wide range of corporate, non-profit, and governmental clients. I was also Principal Cellist of the Washington Sinfonietta. I continued to teach at George Washington University in Classics, and have continued to do research in ancient history. My most recent interdisciplinary work includes the social network analysis of Alexander the Great, a digital humanities project. In April 2012 I decided I wanted to come back full-time to the world of ideas and academia. I applied for this job because I thought it was the perfect fit for my many interests.

My current mission is to identify and support faculty who want to work collaboratively, who are innovative in their perspectives, approaches, use of tools, or teaching, and want to try something bold and different in the classroom. I view myself as a network weaver and am excited about building the UC Forward network. I'm a passionate believer in the power and fertility of transdisciplinary thinking. Today's challenges require us to think and act in new ways, beyond the conventional boundaries of the academic disciplines. Some will want to apply systems thinking or complexity science, and to share theoretical frameworks and experiment courageously. Others will use design thinking and prototyping or scenarios or participatory action research.

UC Forward provides a place for all faculty who want to take risks and try new processes, tools, theories, solutions or approaches. Through the extensive UC Forward Faculty network, we can help you find others with whom you can collaborate, bringing students along on this bold journey of inquiry and discovery. We are a network of faculty, staff, and students who want to join with you to make the University of Cincinnati the think tank and collaboratorium for Cincinnati, the region, the nation, and the world.

We offer many fractals - similar in character, different in type and scale - including:

Collaboratives -- The Niehoff Urban Studio and Community Design Center and the Livewell Collaborative are mature research and teaching centers where faculty and students partner with local businesses and organizations to innovate in the fields of multidisciplinary urbanism or healthcare. We also have other collaboratives such as the Design + Nursing Community Health Collaborative, the Quatenary and Anthropocene Research Group, the Law School's Entrepreneurship and Community Development Clinic, and the Medical Device and Entrepreneurship program.  The Center for Entrepreneurship Education & Research and the Action Research Center are also UC Forward collaboratives. If you are involved in or want to form a collaborative that shares research interests and teaches classes together in a multidisciplinary way, please come see me and let's talk.

Certificate programs -- Self-organizing clusters of faculty from different departments have come together to produce exciting undergraduate certificate programs. These include Critical Visions, UC3, and Historic Preservation. If you have or are developing a certificate program that is shared among disciplines and even colleges, let's talk.

UC Forward Funded Courses -- UC Forward funds faculty teams who compete for grants on an annual basis. These funds allow colleges to offer these team-taught courses. We salute and thank the Provost and President for finding a way to move beyond the barriers and stumbling blocks that would otherwise make such classes prohibitive. Please see "Faculty opportunities" to apply. 

T-Attribute Courses --These UC undergraduate courses are taught by individuals and while not funded, are deemed multidisciplinary enough to be caller Transformational, thus given the Attribute T in OneStop (eCurriculum C-1 for faculty). if your unit would like training or an explanation of this new attribute, contact me.

Graduate programs -- Transdisciplinary graduate programs and courses are already being taught all over the University of Cincinnati. Let us know about the exciting work you are doing. Affilliating with UC Forward could give you more exposure to current and potential students through our website and publicity campaigns. Let us co-host symposia and lectures. Let us introduce you to others who have similar programs. We are not talking about extra work, we are talking about institutional support for the good work you are already doing and giving you a supportive social network. Let's talk.

Colloquia and Faculty Salons -- we are interested in and would like to partner with or facilitate informal not-for-credit learning opportunities or reading circles. Invite UC Forward to co-sponsor your lectures or reading circles. Faculty salons have begun at the CET&L. Do you have an idea for a topic? Let's talk.

Campus-wide Lectures and Conferences -- like the Life of the Mind series, we hope to bring before the UC community speakers and writers from among our own network of faculty to present the discoveries or talk about their journeys with UC Forward. Self-nominations gladly accepted. Let's talk.

Join the UC Forward network!