GALA summer school students from across the network presented summaries of their experiences at the 2018 annual conference hosted by Concordia University. Chaired by Dean of Arts and Sciences at Concordia University, Professor Andre Roy, the students were given five minutes to present.

Sabrina Bramwell (SUNY Geneseo), whose background is in the sciences, said ‘the GALA summer school taught me how participatory engagement in art and writing can help scientists.’

Polly Crockett-Robertson (Bath Spa University) said that she learned ‘that we are most successful when we worked with others and that artists can benefit from partnerships and talking to grass roots artists at the local, national and international level.’

Grace Davies (Bath Spa University) said ‘after interacting with the students at the GALA summer school I have decided to embrace my many interests. I am fascinated by a broad range of subjects, from biology to art, and I am now less concerned about condensing myself to one thing.’

Laura Denning (Bath Spa University) said ‘the time that I have spent here has jettisoned my research into a global domain’.

Gena Driscoll-Brantley (SUNY Geneseo) who studies math and geography said of her experience of ‘people reaching across disciplines, working with policy experts and artists, I have learned things to bring back to my local community. I am especially interested in ways we can create third places to create art together for inspiring for meaningful interactions.’

Marisa Hicks –Alcaraz (CGU) a heritage exchange student said that ‘the opportunity to connect with people here I feel assured that our generation is going to make changes’.

Jante Janssens (Utrecht University), a psychology student, said ‘this week showed me that research and creativity go hand in hand. We can do both creative research and statistics, we can think about experiments in different way.’

Emma Klasse (Bath Spa University) who studies creative computing said that in her subject ‘everyone was so focused on gaming — it was great to socialise and be inspired with this group.’

Luke Mitchell (Bath Spa University) said that he was especially interested in ‘progressive research dissemination and communication and how they influence outcomes and impacts, how GALA can unlock potential like this’.

‘I always saw myself as a scientist playing with different ingredients, lifting stones to see what is under it but after a few years something was missing’ said Hanne Oberman (Utrecht University) ‘this summer school taught me that ‘everyone is an artist’ and I want to embrace that’.

Katelyn Sullivan (SUNY Geneseos) said of her experience ‘I heard from different scholars from different disciplines, participatory art experiences and learned how educational experience can move you. My faith in art and education has benefitted from the workshop, conference, and summer school – I feel privileged to have access to this’.