The Wicked Festival is an exposition of student problem solving hosted by the College of Humanities and Behavioral Sciences and supported by the Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning (CITL), Citizen Leader, and the Office of Undergraduate Research and Scholarship.
The Wicked Festival was motivated by a CITL book group on Dr. Hanstedt's book Creating Wicked Students: Designing Courses for a Complex World. The book inspired several important tenets of the festival: Students tackle wicked, complex, multi-dimensional public problems. Students find solutions. At the festival, students talk about their work with others, becoming the "authorities." At the Wicked Festival, students have used presentations, posters, audio clips, banned book readings, and videos to start conversations about their problems and solutions.
The Fall 2025 Wicked Festival will be held on November 6, 2025 from 5-8 p.m. in the
Artis Center.
Faculty, students, families and prospective Radford students may contact Paige Tan, Ph.D. for more information.
“The projects I saw covered a variety of topics from climate change to obesity, to war, to energy conservation. Some problems could happen in the future and some problems were occurring right now and need solutions. Some problems had better solutions than others, but I loved the creativity of each solution. Additionally, I enjoyed the diversity of the projects because there was always a new idea to look at.”
We have found “wicked” teaching empowers students with the ability to define, research, and solve problems; oral presentation skills; confidence; toleration of ambiguity; collaboration, and understanding failure as part of the process to success.
In addition, in the 2024-2028 school years, we are using $653,000 in grant funding from the Educating Character Initiative at Wake Forest University to augment our “wicked” teaching with character education to enable students to be better wicked problems solvers. We will focus on virtues such as intellectual humility, empathy, hope, and practical wisdom (the ability to connect analysis to solutions in the real world).
We hope our wicked problem solvers will be in demand by employers. One of the key career readiness competencies identified by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) is critical thinking. Behaviors associated with critical thinking are, according to NACE: “solving problems using sound, inclusive reasoning and judgment.” In addition, the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2023 found: "Cognitive skills are reported to be growing in importance most quickly, reflecting the increasing importance of complex problem-solving in the workplace." We are preparing Radford students to be robot-proof.
Look for courses in Appalachian Studies, Biology, Communications, Criminal Justice, Design, Economics, Education, English, Geography, International Studies, Marketing, Office of Undergraduate Research and Scholarship (OURS), Peace Studies, Philosophy, Political Science, Sociology, Social Work, and Spanish that take part in Wicked.
Fall 2021 - Fall 2025
Individual classes that have participated in the festival in the past include:
The Wicked Festival could not happen without our partners and supporters on campus.