Today, I attended the CAP conference in Irving K. Barber, in which I also presented on the “power dynamics of archives”, which I hope some of you enjoyed. Something that struck me in the CAP conference was the fact that there was a very large number of international students, at least presenting. For example, only within our panel of 5 people, I am entirely sure that at least 4 of the students, including me, were international. I think this is something very important to consider when looking into the CAP learning approach and the level of analysis within the presentations.

In the CAP web page we can see that “By registering in one of CAP’s streams, students enter into a unique study experience within a learning community characterized by interlinked courses, frequent interaction with a core group of peers, and ongoing support and encouragement from faculty and staff.” I think that the conference was a clear example of not only how a CAP stream has interdisciplinary courses and learning advantages but also the inter-linkage of the stream themselves. Many of the presentations had members from different CAP streams, different nationalities and different perspectives into pressing global issues.

In think what I am trying to say in essence is that the fact that we can see issues from all different perspectives allows the students to have a more holistic approach towards our learning and allowing us in the end to different conclusion.

For example, this thing can relate to a concept I learned within the political science course that we have learnt this year. The idea that in order to reach a better consensus as a society it is necessary to see points from different perspectives so we can reach the best possible conclusion. I think that this is something that CAP manages to do well because it provides a better insight and level of analysis for the students.