Luke Warren teaches Introduction to 3D Design in the Department of Art and Design. He is also the Technician/Health and Safety Coordinator for the department.
His teaching pedagogy is greatly based on the text, Teaching to Transgress, by Bell Hooks. In this book, Hooks describes the classroom as, “a place of freedom,” and a space that should always be “exciting.” Warren takes this seriously and engages his students through collaborative efforts that decenter the professor as the sole bearer of knowledge in favor of the collective. He believes that professors should never ask students to do something they would not do themselves in class. This promotes vulnerability and a culture of care, respect, and academic risk-taking.
Warren likes to start with broad discussions and hands-on demonstrations of the skills and objectives of each assignment. Once students begin work, he spends moments individually with each of them, every day, checking in on their progress and differentiating his teaching to their unique interests and styles of learning. This continues to cultivate an environment of excitement and collaboration as Warren and his students problem-solve creatively and intersect varying dialogues, processes, fields of study, etc. This style of teaching also dissolves the hierarchical barriers between student and teacher and cultivates the effective side-by-side, peer-to-peer, collaborative classroom environment Hooks talks about in her seminal book and one in which Warren believes in deeply.