34 ACADEMIC ENGAGEMENT: THE COLLECTION AND COURSEWORK oral history, cultural heritage and scholarly ethics. The museum visit took place in the Mellon Classroom and was team-facilitated by the professor and the museum preparators, who enabled close examination of the objects. The academic educator discussed with the class how the objects came to Smith College and entered the museum’s collection, as well as changes in museum prac- tice and ethical considerations since the passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. PHI/REL 108: The Meaning of Life This course, taught by Nalini Bhushan, Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities and professor of philosophy, and Andy Rotman, professor of religion, Buddhist studies and South Asian studies, explored a variety of forms of philosophical and religious thinking and their relevance to our lives. The unit “What is the Artistic Life?” focused on women artists and their search for meaning through visual expression. Because the large number of students in the class made a muse- um visit challenging, educator Charlene Shang Miller visited the class in Seelye Hall to discuss women artists from the past, including Honoré Sharrer, the focus of the museum’s fall 2017 special exhibition. Facilitated close looking and small-group interpretive exercises prepared students for an assignment for which they could choose works installed in the museum’s Teaching Gallery. Students provided a careful description and interpretation of the “visual text”; explained how each work illuminates a particular perspective on a meaningful life; and deepened analysis with reference to authors read in class. Each student ultimately wrote an essay ad- dressing the role of an artist to prod a society to rethink its assumptions about what kinds of lives are meaningful to pursue, and how we as viewers experience art in ways that could transform our perspectives on our own lives or societies, rendering them more meaningful. 2017–2018 GRANTS FOR CURRICULAR INTEGRATION SCMA’s Curricular Integration program supports Smith faculty in designing new courses or modifying existing ones to incorporate a substantial new component of museum-based learning. Grants support museum engagement by integrating SCMA’s art collection more deeply into teaching; integrating museum methods and practice into teaching; and developing new or revised course components that engage students in broad consideration of collecting institutions and their role in society. This year’s grant recipients: Susan Etheredge Professor of Education and Child Study To develop FYS 145: Words and Pictures: The Art, Craft and Technology of the Picture Book Elizabeth Jamieson Professor of Chemistry To redesign CHM 100: Chemistry of Art Objects Joseph McVeigh Professor of German Studies To develop GER 297: New Worlds from the Old Order: German Society and Culture in Transition 1900–1933 Michael Thurston Helen Means Professor of English Language and Literature To develop the interinstitutional learning course with Victor Katz, Holyoke Community College, ENG 215: Free to be Free: U.S. Experimental Art and Poetry at Mid-Century