Instructional Leadership, emphasis: K-12 School Leadership (MEd)
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R4 Conference


Resilience, Resistance, Renovation, and Rebirth

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COVID-19 forced us to adapt and create a new normal as we go. Considering how the pandemic has changed us, what is normal now in the STEAM fields of science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics?

None of us are the same as we were in early 2020. Tell us about how this pandemic has shaped your ideas. It could be a response to the virus, maybe about the isolation driven by the lockdown, or some other issue brought on by the pandemic.

What has happened to your work, research, and lives that would not have happened without the interruption of COVID-19? How did the pandemic spark that innovation, cultural change, poem, industrial design, theorem, performance, medical discovery, or whatever you and your team have discovered? Looking ahead, where do you see yourself taking this idea?

Present at the R4 Conference


Northern Arizona University’s College of Arts and Letters will host the second Resilience, Resistance, Renovation, and Rebirth Conference from March 31–April 1, 2022. Proposals for panels, individual talks, and performances that address this pandemic as a time of inspiration, innovation, and change from all disciplines and fields of study are welcome. Some of the subject areas of interest include:

  • Unexpected collaborations, both intradisciplinary and interdisciplinary
  • Unexpected changes to your research practice and how you pivoted to adapt
  • Ways that you solved an issue brought by the pandemic that will grow and continue post-pandemic
  • Issues of social justice or racism exposed by the pandemic
  • How the time provided a moment for discovery
  • Art, performance, literature, or other artistic work inspired by this moment

Please submit a title and abstract (300 words maximum) describing your panel or presentation, and email to nausteamconference2022@gmail.com by January 31, 2022. Please include your name and institutional affiliation (if any) and those of any co-presenters. Accepted submissions will be announced by March 1, 2022.


Call for proposals

The third R4 conference is coming soon. Please check back for dates and details.

For more information, please contact David Van Ness at nausteamconference2022@gmail.com.

Co-sponsored by Northern Arizona University College of Arts and Letters, School of Art, and School of Music.

Project examples

The COVID Art Museum

The world’s first museum for art born during COVID-19 crisis. #CovidArtMuseum

Beijing COVID Art Exhibition

Analysis of a Beijing art exhibition reflecting on the Chinese coronavirus response.

Turning the coronavirus into music

By “sonifying” the viral structure of a pathogen, researchers could identify binding sites for new drugs.

Student poems during COVID-19: “Pandemic Spring”

Poetry’s resurgence during COVID-19

Why poetry surged in popularity during the pandemic.

The new manufacturing normal after COVID-19

Crisis response measures create ripple effects for decades to come.

Reimagining manufacturing operations after COVID-19

Predicting the ways COVID-19 would affect the global manufacturing supply chain.

Predicting how COVID-19 will reshape architecture

A look at the way our physical space affects living, working, and being.