Franklin research mixer sparks dynamic evening of collaboration

Michelle Ritchie has been a regular at Franklin’s research mixers since they launched in 2024. She was drawn to the gatherings because of their emphasis on advancing multidisciplinary scholarship, one of Franklin’s academic initiatives. The events are held at a local restaurant or coffee shop and feature faculty presentations centered on a multidisciplinary topic. Post presentations, the speakers and audience members mingle and exchange ideas. 

“It’s inspiring to see people from different parts of the university converge around shared questions and overlapping topics like art, games, risk, and the environment,” said Ritchie, an assistant professor at the Institute for Disaster Management in the College of Public Health and an affiliate faculty member in Franklin’s Atmospheric Sciences Program. 

Collaboration was already on her mind when she attended the mixer in February 2025. “I’m a strong advocate for multidisciplinary work,” she said. “It can be destabilizing because you’re stepping outside shared assumptions, training, and familiar vocabulary, but that’s the value in it. People bring different lenses to a topic, and it almost always strengthens ideas, surfaces blind spots, and opens new possibilities.”  

After the presentations, Ritchie found herself speaking with one of the speakers, Professor Michael Marshall from the Lamar Dodd School of Art. That conversation turned into an opportunity: together they are building a course for the fall of 2026: Thematic Inquiry in Contemporary Art: Speculative Futures - From Utopia to Dystopia (ARST 4915/6915). In this upper-level studio course, students will work in the medium of their choosing to explore how environmental change, technology, culture, and social systems shape possible futures. The topic aligns with Ritchie’s current research on the climate futures of Iceland and Marshall’s research in employing art to engage issues of the environment, sustainability, and resilience.  

Last week at Hendershot's, the first 2026 mixer drew an audience of nearly 40 who gathered to see what the six presenters were thinking around the topic “Making Research Visible: Artists in the Lab.”

In addition to a strong and diverse showing from Franklin, the audience included a broad cross-section from across campus, including the colleges of medicine, pharmacy, public health, and engineering, and the school of social work. Franklin Associate Dean for Research, Scholarship, and Partnerships Marshall Shepherd introduced the evening by describing the mixers as a tool to “break down silos and start new conversations.”

Six faculty members presented their research and explained how their work connects arts and sciences. Vivan Appler, assistant professor from the theater and film department, shared her interest in combining performing arts, women’s history in science, and astronomy. Julie Spivey, a professor of graphic design at the Lamar Dodd School of Art, discussed information visualization, a design practice that turns complex scientific concepts into visual language that non-scientists can understand. Assistant professor Alysha Helmrich from the College of Engineering discussed her research on systems resilience and on Resilient Futures, a monthly podcast she co-hosts along with Todd Bridges, also a professor in the College of Engineering. The show examines how individuals, communities, technologies, policies, and environments interact to shape resilient futures in our changing world.  Ash Eliza Smith, assistant professor from the art school, showed how she uses the intersection of technology and art to “push things forward.” One of her current projects “What is a Forest?” explores how forests around Atlanta are sensed and understood by both living and digital systems. Mark Callahan, artistic director of the UGA Arts Collaborative, gave the final presentation. He opened with this idea: “Ask a big enough question and you will need more than one discipline to answer it.” He then shared how arts training methods can help STEM fields with problem framing as much as problem solving and highlighted the way the UGA Arts Collaborative can be a resource for faculty engaged in multidisciplinary research involving the arts. 

“Even when a mixer doesn’t lead to a collaboration,” Ritchie said, “I still come away with new examples, resources, and relationships that keep me connected to what’s happening across Franklin and the university more broadly. I’m also a fan of how the mixers are hosted at local spots rather than on campus. It’s like neutral ground and connects us to the community.”

Franklin’s research mixers happen twice a semester. The next one is on April 9 at Hendershot's, 5 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. For questions email Marnie Shindelman at marni@uga.edu