Below are WAYS 103 Seminars that will be offered in Spring 2025.
Today’s concert scene is diverse and exciting, but what were concerts at Crane like fifty years ago? Whose music was performed and who were the performers? This class will explore diversity as it has evolved on the concert stage by examining selected concert programs from past and present performances at the Crane School of Music. What music should Crane perform in 2025? 2030? You will finish the semester by designing YOUR idea of a diverse and inclusive concert program.
How do you define sex? How many sexes are there? Two? What if I told you that genetically people have five commonly recognized sexes, not two? And sex is different than gender, gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation. In this course, we will discuss sex and gender from biological and social perspectives. By examining published research and reading and listening to first-person accounts on sex and gender from members of various communities and cultures, we will gain a better understanding of the complexity of the lives we live as sexed and gendered people.
This course will examine issues of inclusivity and the underlying ethical questions that surround characters in comic books, graphic novels, CGI, games, virtual reality, and multi-media art. Study includes the history of Wonder Woman, the comics code, and the work of contemporary American artists Ian Cheng, Kerry James Marshall, and Alison Bechdel, who use characters in multi-media art and deal in notions of gender and identity providing new perspectives in understanding characters.
As older generations retire, US workers are drawn from an increasingly diverse pool. Gone are the days when certain positions were restricted to white male workers. For example, in many fields, the workforce is now equally divided between men and women, and people of color have increasingly joined all workplaces. But does this represent true equality? Recent research shows that while there are equal employment opportunities, it is still overwhelmingly men who have access to the higher levels and leadership positions in many professions. Our course will explore the increasing diversity of the American workplace, and the many remaining barriers women & people of color face in their careers.
Science is supposed to be objective and free from bias, yet many of the world’s scientists have come primarily from certain populations. This course will examine the historical barriers faced by traditionally marginalized groups in being accepted and respected as scientists. We will also learn about challenges faced by those groups today in the United States, when confronting bias within the scientific community. Finally, we will look at our own biases about what we expect a scientist to look like.
Can the world be changed in 10 seconds? In August 1936, Nazi Germany hosted the world for the 10th Olympic Games, hoping to use the opportunity to showcase Hitler’s 3rd Reich to the 49 nations striving for the gold. Nonetheless, Jesse Owens, an African American athlete, won gold in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.3 seconds striking a blow against Hitler’s propaganda of Aryan superiority. Owens was one of many diverse athletes competing in the ’36 games who, while facing extraordinary challenges, paved the way for all who followed in their footsteps. Throughout this course, we will examine the stories of diverse American Olympic athletes as they navigated the challenges of training and competition in a charged environment of systemic inequity and discrimination both at home and abroad.
Maps hold a special place in society and have been used for thousands of years. We trust maps without question, but maps have been lying to us since the beginning. However, just because they have been lying to us that does not stop them from being important. We will spend the semester examining and discussing: what maps are, why they are all lying, how maps and their lies have influenced the way we think about the world and ourselves, how the lies of maps can be used against, and who might be harmed by the lies maps tell. We’ll practice speaking and explaining how maps contain biases and what they’re capable of communicating.
This course explores the intersections of mindfulness practices and diversity, focusing on how mindfulness can enhance our understanding of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Students will examine various contemplative traditions and practices, alongside critical discussions on race, gender, sexuality, ability, and socio-economic factors. Through readings, discussions, experiential exercises, and reflective assignments, students will develop a deeper understanding of themselves and others within diverse social contexts.
In many ways, race is “seen” with many people often identifying race—and making judgments about another person or group of people—based only on what they see. In this course, we will use images from comics and graphic novels to explore what people see when they “see race.” We will look at both positive and negative visualizations, exploring images that celebrate racial diversity as well as those that emphasize stereotypes, in order to better understand how race is seen. Further, we will use our discussions of these images as way to begin talking about our own understandings of the visual nature of race: How do we see race? How do we want our race to be seen? What do we want others to see?
How do women’s bodies get marked as beautiful or deviant in society? How have race, gender, and class shaped the social construction of beauty in the United States? How do diverse women and girls experience their bodies in relation to dominant and counter culture beauty standards? How do diverse groups resist oppressive beauty standards? How does the female body play a role in groups’ responses to marginalization and oppression? Students in this class will explore these questions through an analysis of the social historical construction of beauty and women’s bodies in the United States.