News from the School of IAS

Category: Diversity

Jason Morse: What’s surprising about sex, gender, race?

In the Discovery Core course The Functions of Sex: Race and Gender in America discussions quickly move from the awkward to the intellectual, and students sometimes surprise their instructor, IAS faculty member Jason Morse. Designed to help first-year college students explore new concepts and interdisciplinary issues, the course is a cultural study of sex as a form of identity, socialization and power in framing gender and race.

March 8, 2021

Helen K. Thomas: Young adult books connect Black girls globally

A fan of young adult fiction, Helen K. Thomas explored the genre in the Master of Arts in Cultural Studies program and now is researching the books' global appeal with a Fulbright in Nigeria. Although the coronavirus pandemic is far from over, Thomas plans to start her nine-month Fulbright this spring, leading reading circles with teen girls in Lagos, Nigeria. “My goal is to see how these books create a greater sense of agency in the Nigerian girls’ sense of their future, and then also to see how reading these books creates a stronger sense of community and interest in other Black girls around the world,” Thomas said.

March 1, 2021

Karam Dana on “Learning Matters: A Bridge to Practice” podcast

IAS faculty member Karam Dana was a guest on the “Learning Matters: A Bridge to Practice” podcast hosted by Scott Macklin from Trinity Western University in British Colombia. In the podcast episode addressing global connections, Dana describes his research, and its power in transforming our understanding with regard to studying Palestine and Palestinians, and with regard to the study of American Muslims ...

February 26, 2021

Cultural Studies prepare diversity officers

Graduates of the Master of Arts in Cultural Studies (MACS) program lead cultural change — a skill more organizations are seeking after witnessing widespread protests against racial injustice. Many employers are now looking for diversity officers to lead that change, and hiring for such positions increased more than 90% since 2019, LinkedIn reported. “What’s strong about the Cultural Studies preparation is that it understands this is long term social and cultural change — changing the way people work and do things,” Bartha said. “The curriculum of the Cultural Studies program thinks about the dynamics of organizational change as well as community accountability and helps people know that ground.” Along with the position of diversity officer, MACS graduates carry out similar work as artists, educators and activists.

February 23, 2021

Jed Murr: Teaching ethnic studies here and in Slovenia

During a sabbatical originally planned as a teaching Fulbright in Slovenia, IAS faculty member Jed Murr is working on a project funded with a UW Bothell Scholarship, Research and Creative Practice Seed Grant. As part of a larger Black Arts Northwest collaboration with scholars, librarians and archivists, Murr is creating a digital history platform. Part of the platform will be a website about a Black Power mural in Seattle that was created in the early 1970s and destroyed in the 1990s. Another project would digitize Black periodicals published in Seattle and make them publicly accessible.

February 9, 2021

Linda Watts: Historical detectives on the Nat Turner case

IAS faculty member Linda Watts teaches the Nat Turner slave rebellion as a case study in history and a way for Discovery Core students to learn through the different stories told about the event. Nat Turner led a slave rebellion in 1831 in Southampton County, Virginia where many people were killed, including Turner who was hanged. “We have almost nothing that comes directly from Nat Turner. We see him refracted through other people’s accounts,” said Watts, who challenges her challenges her students to become historical detectives. They not only investigate the historic situation, they also analyze its implications in artists’ imaginations.

February 9, 2021

Min Tang: Creating critical media literacy workshops

Students in IAS faculty member Min Tang’s Critical Media Literacy course developed educational workshops to share with the Northshore School District’s teachers and students. “I encourage my students to think about how power structures in a society shape the media systems and processes,” Tang said. “I want them to understand the kind of power media has in shaping our social discourses, perceptions and opinions.”

February 9, 2021

Melissa Schutten discusses DEI in the Salish Sea on KPTZ

On February 3, IAS alum Melissa (Watkinson) Schutten and colleague Michael Chang, of Cascadia Consulting Group, were interviewed on KPTZ 91.9 FM’s Coastal Café about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) in the Salish Sea. Schutten and Chang are ...

February 8, 2021

Karam Dana on the Biden Administration’s reversal of the Muslim Ban (KUOW)

IAS faculty member Karam Dana was interviewed by KUOW’s Kim Malcolm for “All Things Considered” on the Biden Administration’s reversal of the Muslim Ban. Dana reflected on what this reversal means to the local Muslim American community, and its impact globally, situating the issue of discrimination towards Muslims as a central problem with how American society has operated ...

January 27, 2021