gesture is the UW College of Arts & Sciences’ early career lab. We help students recognize what their liberal arts education is teaching them, translate that learning across academic and professional contexts, and put it to work for others.
We see faculty as partners in that work. Disciplinary learning changes students, and gesture helps them notice, name, and carry that change into what comes next.
Learning With Podcast
Learning With is our video series featuring Arts & Sciences faculty and college leaders. Each conversation explores how a discipline shapes the people who study it: the challenges students learn to take on, the assumptions the field asks them to question, and how that learning prepares them to contribute. Departments are welcome to share or embed episodes. Interested in participating? Let’s talk.
ARTSCI 390: Learning with an Internship
Not every department has the capacity to offer its own internship course. Beginning Spring 2027, ARTSCI 390 will give Arts & Sciences students a college-level option for learning from internships and applied experiences arranged outside the course. Through guided reflection, feedback, and professional practice stories, students examine their challenges and contributions and carry what they learn into future academic and professional work. The course is offered for variable credit, in person or online.
Bringing gesture into Your Department
When there’s a strong fit, we collaborate selectively with departments. That might mean adapting a gesture activity for an existing course, offering a workshop tied to a specific student need, or helping faculty connect disciplinary learning to professional identity and applied experience. We’re a small team, so every collaboration starts with a conversation about what your students need and whether gesture is the right partner.
Partnering with Advising
gesture is working with Arts & Sciences academic advising to strengthen how the college supports students’ career preparation, including new ways to connect academic exploration with professional identity early in students’ time at UW.
For what gesture offers students directly, visit our For Students page