'Innovation' announced as 2018-2019 Common Experience theme

Posted by Jayme Blaschke
Office of Media Relations
April 24, 2018

SAN MARCOS – Texas State University has announced "Innovation" as the 2018-2019 Common Experience theme.

The university annually selects an academic theme around which are organized numerous opportunities for students, faculty, staff and community members to share in a Common Experience.

For 2018-2019, students will explore innovation in a yearlong conversation about the ideas and possibilities that will shape the future, both at Texas State and around the world. Exploring these ideas will help participants develop an understanding of how innovation determines advancements in teaching and learning; creative arts; research and scholarship; career and professional opportunities; and endeavors that impact the future.

The Common Experience offers themed exhibitions and events throughout the year, including the LBJ Distinguished Lecture, named for Texas State’s most famous alumnus, President Lyndon Baines Johnson. The series brings to reality President Johnson's desire to invite some of the finest minds in the country to speak at Texas State. Previous speakers have included poet Maya Angelou, film director Robert Rodriguez, former U.S. President Gerald Ford and attorney/author Bryan Stevenson.

The university will host an Innovation Week, September 24-28, allowing the campus to showcase to students the numerous spaces and programs available for growing new ideas, devices and methods.

As part of the Common Experience, all incoming first-year students receive a critically-acclaimed book related to the year’s theme. Students discuss the book in their University Seminar class. The 2018-2019 Common Reading book is The Runaway Species: How Human Creativity Remakes the World by composer Anthony Brandt and neuroscientist David Eagleman. Beginning with stories about Apollo 13 and Picasso, the book weaves together the arts and sciences—investigating humanity's ability to innovate to meet challenges.

For more information, email the Common Experience at commonexperience@txstate.edu.

About Texas State University

Founded in 1899, Texas State University is among the largest universities in Texas with an enrollment of 38,694 students on campuses in San Marcos and Round Rock. Texas State’s 184,000-plus alumni are a powerful force in serving the economic workforce needs of Texas and throughout the world. Designated an Emerging Research University by the State of Texas, Texas State is classified under “Doctoral Universities: Higher Research Activity,” the second-highest designation for research institutions under the Carnegie classification system.