Learning Road Trip

A series of visits to people whose work you want to learn more about or, by their responses to you presenting your own work, learn from. Although, in the academic world, budgets and schedules for hosting visitors are limited, people are often happy to carve out time and arrange an audience for a self-funding visitor, especially one who wants to learn more about their work. You do not have to be on their “A-list” to be welcome. Airbnb or economy motels and driving your own car can keep costs down. To reduce the strain of driving long distances, team up with someone with whom you can have a rolling in-car seminar on what you are learning and other shared interests.

A Learning Road Trip may be viewed as a form of CPR Space in that you and your hosts “re-engage with themselves as avid learners, experience collaboration that does not submerge their individual projects, and get a reminder that it is possible not to continue along previous lines.” Indeed, one of the challenges of a Learning Road Trip for the visitor is saturation—more leads and threads that you can follow up on.