Provost Academy participants have the unique opportunity to work closely with Pitt faculty members and their peers on fascinating experiential academic projects.
Throughout the week, students will get to meet with their faculty members to engage in interdisciplinary lectures, cohort activities, field studies, research, and informational workshops.
Each project culminates in a group presentation at the end of Provost Academy. This experience prepares students to enter their first day of classes with confidence!
All Provost Academy projects are interdisciplinary, and each will provide you with skills and resources to help you succeed in your Pitt classes.
Choose which projects sound the most interesting to you! You will select up to 3 projects that you are interested in when you register.
The projects you choose do not need to be related to your intended major.
- Big Brushstrokes: A Collaborative Mural Project
Kick off your Pitt experience with creativity, collaboration, and a splash of color! In this beginner-friendly, week-long course, you’ll be part of a team bringing a large-scale mural to life. The mural design will be prepared in advance, and you’ll learn hands-on techniques to translate the design from concept to completion. Through guided instruction, you'll explore large-scale painting methods, color mixing, and brushwork techniques while working alongside fellow incoming students. No prior painting or drawing experience is needed, just a willingness to jump in, get a little messy, and be part of something bigger. By the end of the week, you’ll have helped create a large painting that will beautify our spaces. This is your chance to make your mark, build connections, and start your journey at Pitt with a hands-on creative experience!
Subject: Studio Arts
Led by: Gianni Downs, Teaching Professor in Scenic Design and Scenic Painting; Director of Undergraduate Studies, Theatre Arts- Comedy, Storytelling, and Illustrating Politics
Comedy, storytelling, and illustrating has been used to address political topics for a long time, with early examples spanning the writings of Aristophanes and Shakespeare, the satire of court jesters, Cruikshank's political cartoons, and Puck magazine. Political scientists and media studies scholars are paying increased attention to people who get some (or even all) of their knowledge about politics from ostensibly comedic sources. This experience will explore that boundary by researching typologies of comedy and storytelling as politically relevant discourse. Not only will we familiarize ourselves with the typologies of political comedy, but students will be trained on how to make political comedy themselves (cartoons, standup, storytelling, and sketch). If you like to laugh, to tell stories, to draw, and/or to just think about how the tales we tell inspire the politics we believe, then this experience is for you.
Subject: Political Science, English – Rhetoric, Media and Communications
Led by: Andrew Lotz, Teaching Professor, Director of Undergraduate Studies, and Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Studies, Department of Political Science- Fight Bravely: Stage Combat for Everyone
Let’s admit it: we love a good fight. Whether it’s Shakespeare’s Henry IV, the latest Kung Fu film, or The Empire Strikes Back, a lot of the time, we are just waiting for the moment when negotiations break down, voices are raised, lightsabers ignited, and the combatants come out swinging. In this course, we are going to talk about theatrical and cinematic combat: what we like (yes, you will weigh in with your favorites), how it works in terms of the larger story, character, and movement. But it gets better. After we spend some time talking about the fights we love in film and on stage, it’s swords out. You will learn the elements of safe stage combat in a week of training that will culminate in choreographing with your partner(s) your own original stage fight. It’s wonderful if you have theater or martial arts experience, but this course is open to people of all backgrounds, genders, and basically anyone who wants to mix it up.
Subject: Theater Arts
Led by:- Jeff Aziz, Teaching Professor and Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Studies, Department of English
- Tonya Lynn, Richard E. Rauh Teaching Artist in Residence, Department of Theatre Arts
- From TV to TikTok: Using Media to Promote Health
Have you ever stopped to think about the extent to which your interest in medicine, science, or healthcare has been influenced by what you see on television? Or how your health behaviors are related to what you see on social media? This course will explore these questions through a mix of class discussions, presentations from medical and public health professionals, and analyzing some of your favorite television programs and social media platforms. Spend a week with us looking at health information, health care, and health science through the lens of primetime television and social media. What you learn might surprise you—maybe even inspire you.
Subject: Medicine and Health Science, Public Health
Led by: Beth Hoffman, Assistant Professor, Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences- Neuroscience of Human Movement: Do We Sense to Move, Move to Sense, or Just Act?
Explore a brain’s view of sensing, moving, and thinking in action. While we might listen to music or watch a video to relax and ‘do nothing’ or go for a walk or run to "get away from thinking,", our brain continually integrates sensing, moving, and thinking for our intended actions. We will review brain regions and functions through "previously real" [neuroanatomy lab, brain specimens] and brain models, engage in interactive "brain challenges," and apply behavioral measures to observe and record, and maybe acquire a new motor skill behavior. Explore and experience the brain’s decision-making, for action in a planet full of opportunities; experience your brain’s talents and ability to rise to challenges in action. Students use course experiences to bring brain function to act ‘alive’ in the creation of a model of the brain and neural processes, that enable human movement behavior—senses, moves us, and acts.
Subject: Neuroscience
Led by: Jessie Van Swearingen, Professor, Department of Physical Therapy- Sports and Political Culture
Sports reveal and emphasize the best and worst of humanity. They inspire hope and elicit despair. They sometimes promote peace and understanding, but other times incite and invite violence and hatred. They unite communities even as they simultaneously sow division and tribalism. They expose the status quo and serve as a platform for protest and change. More broadly, sports both reflect and influence social and political culture. This project will use a broad and critical historical lens to interrogate the role that sports, in Pittsburgh and around the globe, have played in major facets of social and political life.
Subject: History
Led by: Eladio Bobadilla, Assistant Professor, Department of History- Sustainable Food Systems
Imagine learning how to cook a healthy meal that is good for your brain, body, and the planet. Spend your first week on campus learning about all of the amazing urban farms around campus and getting to know community leaders growing food right here in Oakland. This course will involve a planetary health cooking class at the Phipps Conservatory Botany Hall Teaching Kitchen, contributing to the Pitt student urban farm, Plant 2 Plate, spending time in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences Healthy Home Lab adaptive kitchen garden, getting to know all the ways that Pitt is working to make our food system sustainable, and re-use materials in the Hillman Library Open Lab for a planter to grow your own food.
Subject: Food and Sustainability
Led by: Corey Flynn, Director, Office of Sustainability in the Health Sciences (OSHS), Assistant Professor, School of Medicine- The Team Behind the Team: The Intersection of Healthcare and Sports Performance
Athletic trainers and sport scientists play a vital role in optimizing athlete health and performance. Join Pitt faculty for a behind-the-scenes look at how these professionals support athletic success through hands on experiences in state of the art facilities. Participants will explore injury prevention, performance enhancement, recovery strategies, and interdisciplinary collaboration.
Subject: Health Sciences, Athletic Training, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences
Led by: Amy Aggelou, Director and Assistant Professor, Athletic Training Program- Water Quality in Pittsburgh
Could you imagine a day without water? Water is an invaluable asset to our daily lives, ecosystems, and economy. Spend the week dipping your toes into regional water with the Pittsburgh Water Collaboratory (water.pitt.edu)! In this hands-on interactive course with field trips, you’ll learn about Pittsburgh water assets and opportunities, explore the power of your voice to make positive change, and connect with water leaders at Pitt and within the community. We’ll also dive into water specific environmental careers including water scientists, engineers, hydrologists, chemists, biologists, green building professionals, GIS analysts, science policy and communication professionals, and more! Join us for an exciting week of curriculum and opportunities to connect.
Subject: Sustainability, Environmental Science Studies
Led by:- Megan Lange, Engagement Programs Manager
- Jonathan Burgess, Director, Pittsburgh Water Collaboratory
- We Seek the Grail: Representations of the Holy Grail in Comics
What actually is the Holy Grail—and how did a medieval sacred object become a pop culture icon in comics? In this project, students will explore how the Grail has been described and visually represented in medieval and neo medieval sources—such as manuscripts, images, and woodcuts—and then trace how those representations are reimagined in comics. Students will investigate when and where these comic portrayals were created, who produced them, and how closely they align with (or depart from) medieval descriptions of the Grail. Through hands on analysis and creative comparison, students will examine how popular culture reshapes legendary objects over time. Final presentations will focus on how the Grail is understood today in comics and whether these modern interpretations reflect historical traditions or invent entirely new versions—ranging from the “fancy chalice” to the “plain cup,” other objects, or even people.
Subject: English Literature, Comparative Literature, Comics & Graphic Novel Studies
Led by: Carl Sell, Associate Director for McNair and Undergraduate Research Programs- What Do You Think You Know About Pittsburgh?
Whether you are from the city, from the region, or from further afield, histories change over time based on who tells or writes them and when, what they are trying to accomplish, and what readers/students already think they know or believe. For those less familiar with the city or with less experience here, this course will provide a primer to the history of Pittsburgh. For those who are from the city or the immediate region, it will challenge them to complicate decades-long narratives of Pittsburgh as among the most “livable” cities in the country. Through a combination of physical mobility (walking tours/site visits), archival documents (virtual and or in-person at the Heinz History Center and the University’s Archives Service Center) and discussion, we will unwrap Pittsburgh in its complexity and examine counter narratives that Pittsburgh’s “renaissances” were experienced universally and necessarily positive. Ideally, we will also intersect with one or more other groups thinking about the city’s future.
Subject: History and Social Science
Led by: John Stoner, Teaching Professor, Department of History- Your Voice Is Your Power
More than 90 percent of eligible University of Pittsburgh students are registered to vote, and of those, nearly 80 percent voted in the last Presidential election. University of Pittsburgh students give more than 460,000 hours of service to the community annually. Affecting the world around them through civic and community engagement is just what Pitt students do. Are you ready? This course will help you to tap into YOUR voice and to learn how to work with others to create real and just social and political change. We will talk about how factors like race, age, and poverty can affect who gets heard, and whose voices are marginalized, from the ballot box to the service organizations to the streets. And we will draw on what Rev. Martin Luther King called our “inescapable network of mutuality” to help us build the tools to be heard, to listen to one another, and to take our places as social activists, on the Pitt campus and beyond.
Subject: Social Justice, Communication
Led by:- Ron Idoko, Associate Director, Center on Race and Social Problems and Research Assistant Professor, School of Social Work
- Kristin Kanthak, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science