From the Nominator

"Creative activity and scientific research can often seem worlds apart and difficult for cross-campus colleagues to understand. Similarly, interdisciplinary work—a popular topic in higher ed—can be difficult to explain or visualize. 

These barriers are the inspiration behind Texas Christian University (TCU) marketing’s mini-documentary, ReWire: A Movement for the Greater Good, where art meets science to show how and why interdisciplinary collaboration truly matters. This four-minute video showcases how TCU dance professor Nina Martin stepped out of a research silo to collaborate with chemistry professor Eric Simanek to study how her ReWire dance practice could be used as a therapeutic technique for those living with movement disorders like cerebral palsy.   

To elevate TCU’s academic reputation among a peer audience, the TCU marketing team featured the video as part of an Inside Higher Ed-sponsored content piece that was supported with display and social advertising. The sponsored content offered readers ideas to generate successful interdisciplinary work at their own institutions, using the ReWire project as a case study.   

In the video, TCU marketing illustrated the tangible impact of the research by highlighting the human angle and removing jargon without over-simplifying the work. The marketing team interviewed faculty, student researchers, and collaborators to craft a compelling narrative that showed how TCU plays a pivotal role in addressing an important issue.   

The result was a video with an artistic aesthetic that conveyed how the ReWire method exemplifies using interdisciplinary research as a “force for the greater good,” which was TCU’s 2020-21 campaign focus."

From the Judges

The video’s striking images hold the attention of the viewer. There was a good use of multiple voices to tell the story and anchor the importance of the work.