Cross-disciplinary Collaboration: Sharing Course Activities with the College Community

1. Cross-disciplinary Collaboration: Sharing Course Activities with the College Community JuliaGrace Jester, Ph.D., Psychology, Harrisburg Area Community College Judith Rosenstein, Ph.D., Sociology, United States Naval Academy Collaboration performed while at Wells College, Aurora NY Introduction The Movies Results The first 2 events were movies that were open to the whole campus but were required for our students This poster discusses the benefits and problems in creating cross-disciplinary events that encompass both course assignments and activities for the campus as a whole. These observations are based upon the experiences of a psychology professor and a sociology professor who, while teaching a “stigmatization and stereotyping” class and a “hate crimes” class respectively, decided to do joint activities that were open to the college. The point was to open up our in-class discussions on these topics to the college community at large, with the intent being to build towards a proactive event about encouraging positive change. • Up to 10% of the campus in attendance • High evaluations for classes • Comments about long term responses, hope for change • Significant positive feedback from community and administration • “I just wanted to say that ‘Deconstructing Difference: an interactive fair on tolerance’ was amazing. All the students did a great job and were very passionate about what they had learned. Kudos to you and to all of them! I learned a lot in just the few minutes I was there and really wish I could have spent more time.” • The Laramie Project • Hate crimes and stigmatization based on sexuality • Open viewing, guided discussion • American History X • Race discrimination • Hate crimes • White supremacy • Open viewing, guided discussion • More violent than previous, a building process, set up for final event, challenging the audience The Courses Suggestions • Wells College, Spring 2008 • Stereotyping and Stigmatization-Jester • Psychology class focusing on the development, content, effects, and reduction techniques for stereotyping and stigmatization • Hate Crimes- Rosenstein • Sociology course focusing on the social forces, group differences, legality issues associated with, and recognitions of forms of hate crimes • Suggestion for engaging in this type of work: • Early planning to structure the multiple timelines • Creating a joint vocabulary for ideas and disciplines • Engaging students as collaborators in the course design • Connecting to campus groups that would benefit from involvement in course-related events. • Events should increase in complexity/intensity. • Events need structure but also some freedom for student- driven involvement • Suggestions for cross-disciplinary work • Marketing and Environmental Studies • Encouraging sustainability and garnering support • Biology and Graphics Design • Realistic biological displays (i.e. gaming) • Film Studies and Psychology • Representations of mental illness • Psychology behind genre shifts • Literature and Sociology • Cultural representations in popular fiction Deconstructing Difference The Preparation • Creating a course-linked cross-disciplinary project takes a lot of preparation because a lot must be decided and arranged long before the class begins: • Intense collaboration between teachers • Plan the events: • Must be equally relevant for both classes • When, where, and who: • In class, out of class, open to whole campus? • Include requirements in syllabus and advertising for the courses: • Balance the extra work with the “normal” work of the class • Policy Decisions: • Can students be in both classes? • Funding and logistics for events and food • Permission for movies • Scheduling spaces • Final project presentations for both classes • Students decided projects and advertised the event • Goals: • Education in a palatable format • Addressing the many aspects of hatred and discrimination • Involving audience • Creating change Sample Project: Recognizing Stereotypes Represented in Cartoon Characters The Events Sample Project: Exploring the Use of Racial Stereotypes in Humor: Is Chris Rock’s comedy funny when read by other races? • Our events were open to the entire college community and consisted of: • 2 movies followed by guided open discussion • an event called “Deconstructing Difference” where the students presented their final projects for each class • Projects were developed through student discussion and selection over the entire semester • Final projects had to entertain and educate Image Sources: All photos from the events taken by JuliaGrace Jester Deconstructing Hate flyer by Steven Thomas Other images from the following websites: http://nottheonlyone.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/american-history-x.jpg http://www.learningfromlyrics.org/the-laramie-project%5B1%5D.gif