So many folks enjoyed my one year at Knox College post that I thought I’d note some more things about what I love here. It’s fun for me to reflect on why Knox is such a transformative place and I guess it might be fun for our community to hear more about that also! So here’s my next installment.
I’ve been blessed with a really fun research career. It has included time as a visiting researcher at Carnegie Mellon’s famed Robotics Institute; two separate Fulbright-Nehru research awards that allowed me to live and pursue research projects at the Indian Institute of Science and the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore; multiple visits to Korea as part of my collaborations there; and, of course, opportunities to give talks all over the world.
So what’s new and great about Knox? Well, it’s letting me leverage the skills and experiences I’ve had to do even more awesome stuff. I think that’s what Knox can fundamentally do for every member of the student body and the faculty. A little initiative and some creative inspiration means an opportunity to really grow. I haven’t started learning how to use the letterpress studio yet (let’s hope someone will let me!) but I’ve definitely gotten to spread my wings in fascinating ways.
How so?
I’m so glad that you asked!
Let’s start with an obvious and stunning example: I got to collaborate with an internationally recognized artist, Michael Takeo Magruder, on an absolutely gorgeous exhibition which we followed by publishing an artbook. That exhibition, re:Generated Prairie, is a meditation on the controlled burn and subsequent regrowth of prairie grasslands.
Drawing on photographs, videos, and audio recordings from the April 2025 burn and subsequent renewal in the spring, the exhibition forces viewers to reckon with our relationship to nature and also with our technological capture of that relationship. One of our images appeared on the back cover of Christian Century in November 2025 and I have an essay about the exhibition forthcoming in Image, a literary arts journal that, in their words, “fosters contemporary art and writing that grapple with the mystery of being human by curating, cultivating, convening, and celebrating work that explores religious faith and spiritual questions.” I’ll put a link up when we’re in publication. The exhibition artbook is a limited edition work of art in itself, filled with beautiful images and essays by people both inside and outside of Knox College.
The exhibition included a great set of archival photographs, maps, and scrapbooks from the Knox College Seymour Library Archive and Special Collections (not pictured), and an amazing array of artistically rendered prints, canvases, and videos. A continuously generated audio soundscape filled the gallery.
We had help from my amazing staff colleague (she was invaluable for her insight, labor, and good cheer!) and some fantastic students who got a masterclass in exhibition setup from Takeo. Without doubt, what the students learned about collaboration and about delivering a beautiful and stimulating experience will go with them into their future careers.
All right. So one amazing thing I’ve been doing is art. What else? I think it’s worth recognizing that getting to commission re:Generated Prairie at Knox should already be enough to celebrate … but there’s more!
Another thing I’ve been doing is advancing my own research projects, and this will have direct impact for my students. I’d love, by the way, to upload the awesome animated version of this book cover which was created by Richard Borges, but WordPress wants twice as much per month for me to be able to post a video. That’s just silly. So go find the animated version on LinkedIn!
This cover is for my new book, which I began a couple of years back but which I’ve been finishing over the past fifteen months.
Faculty research projects like this create new opportunities for students in the classroom (I actually have an entire class called Futureproofing Humanity, which I’ll teach in the 2026-27 academic year) and in the potential for faculty-guided student research projects. I’ve already worked with undergraduate students on projects related to my research in artificial intelligence, and I expect there will be many more such opportunities. I’ve even been considering something like a research team to collaborative study and publish together.
One more example of what I’m doing in my own explorations. This one draws together my childhood with my research and with my newfound art world. As I describe in that latest book, Futureproofing Humanity, I think that tabletop roleplaying games offer important ways of thinking through contemporary life and the future we want to build (shoutout to Dungeons & Dragons, Shadowrun, and Coyote & Crow). And of course regular readers at my site know that I have published some pop essays here and elsewhere about the influence of Dungeons and Dragons on 21st century culture (that second one got a lot of traction when it came out).
So when I needed an inaugural exhibition for my brand new display area (this vitrine was built for re:Generated Prairie and will now be the home for small exhibitions in Borzello Hall on campus), doing something with Dungeons & Dragons was a natural choice. I put a bunch of my collection in here, learned to make foam board wall text (I’ve got a lot to learn about doing that well), and so on.
After this exhibition, I actually plan to teach students to design exhibitions once or twice per year. This is one more way where I’m learning things to teach things. As for this first exhibition, I will invite the gaming club and the LARPing club to come chat with me about the early days of roleplaying games. It should be a fun conversation!
I think what I’m trying to say is that Knox encourages me to think and work in new, deliberate, and creative ways. I’ve always considered myself a multidisciplinary kind of person because my research spans humanities, social sciences, and the sciences. But at Knox that has been stratospherically advanced. I’m excited to be part of this community and to share what I’m learning with my students. This is a chance to inspire terrific young people to do remarkable things.
Visit us. Support us. Join us. Whatever makes sense for you. Be part of a transformative community. I’m grateful to be.
Robert M Geraci 