Dr. Rosario Laratta (Political Science), in collaboration with Dr. Mike Blow and Dr. Samuel Stocker (Interdisciplinary Arts), has co-authored a new publication exploring iCLA’s GALA event as a case study of co-production in higher education.
Co-production is typically associated with fields such as urban planning and healthcare, where services are developed through collaboration between professionals and the communities they serve. This study brings the concept into the university context, demonstrating its relevance for teaching, learning, and student engagement. Held each fall and spring semester, GALA brings together students from diverse academic backgrounds to design and deliver a large-scale cultural event. The program includes performances, exhibitions, decorations, and food and beverage initiatives, all developed with the support and guidance of faculty and staff.
The study highlights how GALA creates a co-productive environment in which students move beyond the role of passive learners to become active contributors to university life. At the same time, faculty take on facilitative roles that emphasize trust, shared responsibility, and reflective learning. Findings suggest that this approach helps students develop key competencies such as leadership, collaboration, adaptability, and intercultural communication—skills that are often difficult to cultivate through classroom instruction alone.
The publication appears in the Yamanashi Gakuin University Global Learning Center Bulletin: International Collaborative Learning and Language Education Practices, Vol. 5 (山梨学院大学グローバルラーニングセンター紀要『国際共修・語学教育実践』第5号).
