Transmedia Knowledge for Liberal Arts and Community Engagement: A Studiolab Manifesto

This book sets forth a pedagogy for renewing the liberal arts by combining critical thinking, media activism, and design thinking. Using the StudioLab approach, the author seeks to democratize the social and technical practices of digital culture just as nineteenth century education sought to democratize literacy. This production of transmedia knowledge--from texts and videos to comics and installations--moves students between seminar, studio, lab, and field activities. The book also wrestles with the figure of Plato and the very medium of knowledge to re-envision higher education in contemporary societies, issuing a call for community engagement as a form of collective thought-action.

Jon McKenzie is Dean’s Fellow for Media and Design and Professor of Practice in the Department of English at Cornell University, USA. He is the author of Perform or Else: From Discipline to Performance and co-founder of the performance group McKenzie Stojnic.