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Fine Arts Division

Theatre Courses

Participating Faculty:

  • Cathy Thomas-Grant, Professor of Theatre

Participating Student: 

  • Celine Foreman

Goals:

First-Year Seminar Course: Implement various tools and practices to support the social, mental, cultural, and emotional health of students taking "Hard Hitting Songs for Hard Hit People." This includes but is not limited to: diversifying the content and delivery of course content, implementing social emotional learning practices including mindfulness and meditation, and developing learning and teaching supports that center marginalized identities and experiences.

Participating Faculty:

  • Melanie Watnick, Costumer and Adjunct Professor of Theatre

Participating Student: 

  • Haley Powell

Goals:

THEA 492: Revolution in Fashion, a proposed new class, would fulfill a GE in fine art and expand our students knowledge and empathy for others through the subjects studied. An introduction to the history of Western costumes from antiquity to modern day dress. This course will analyze the connections between social economic and political events and how they relate to fashion. Further emphasis will be spent on individuals cultures and outliers who's ideas shaped contemporary design and manufacturing as we currently know it.

Studio Art Courses

Participating Faculty:

  • Ty Pownall, Associate Professor of Studio Art

Participating Student: 

  • Mya Gordon

Goals:

ART 390: Objectives for this course redesign are to: 

    • Consider the SLOs and add more specific language about dynamics of difference. 
    • Help the students to not just value diversity they encounter in the world but to value the diversity that they themselves embody and can communicate to the world through their art.
    • Understand what current course materials are working well at prompting students to consider their own positionality in the world and the undividable connection between art and diversity. 
    • Create a course reader or course pack to replace most of the book I am currently using, which is not a bad text but is showing its age (2001) and is light on topics pertaining to racism and inclusivity. 
    • Create a network of external artist lecturers to speak to and with students in this class. 
    • Redesign course structure to take full advantage of high impact experiences and best practices in group discussions, as to create a rigorous, just, and safe environment within which everyone in the class can grow.
    • Seek better ways to center non-art making course work on the art making experience so the students are not simply considering challenging ideas, but are working through them in their artwork, and thus reflecting on their personal relationship to these various attributes of life.  

Art History Courses

Participating Faculty:

  • Cynthia Colburn, Professor of Art History

Participating Student: 

  • Abigail Munzar

Goals:

ARTH 424: The goal of our research this summer will be to make audible the myriad voices of the marginalized in ancient Greek and Roman society, including enslaved human beings. In addition to researching the conditions of the enslaved, we will also work to highlight the contributions of those enslaved by Greeks and Romans to the achievements touted in textbooks as resulting from the brilliance of those in power. We will also research the role of ancient Greek and Roman authors (such as Aristotle), and practices in justifying the Atlantic slave trade and, specifically, slavery in the United States. 

Music Courses

Participating Faculty:

  • Gary Cobb, Professor of Music

Participating Student: 

  • Brittany Weinstock

Goals:

MUS 354: Most textbooks are still relatively weak in coverage of musics representing diverse groups. The course revision will involve identifying composers and their music who represent African American individuals, Asian Americans, Latin Americans, and female composers. The opportunities possible to address diversity through the arts are quite extensive.