As the culmination of the Spring 2020 course “Narrating Social Change,” a seminar taught by Professors Cathy Cohen and Alice Kim, students created their own narrative projects. True to the spirit of a class that examined and analyzed narratives in multiple mediums—including film, memoir, dance, and music—students designed a range of creative projects addressing how individuals, groups, and communities have narrated their struggles against systems of oppression such as mass incarceration. In honor of the students’ powerful and deeply personal work, we are sharing several student projects here:
Dayo Adeoye, AB’22 (Law, Letters, and Society; Education and Society)
#ListenToHer: A Platform for Personal Narrative
Project Description
Emilio Balderas, AB’21 (Anthropology; Gender and Sexuality Studies; Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies)
Oral History with My Dad: On Becoming a New King
Project Description
Eric Blackmon (University Without Walls, Northeastern Illinois University)
Report on Long-Term Sentencing in Illinois
Project Description
Jahne Brown, AB’20 (History)
Audio and Transcript of Jahne’s address to the nation, “We Mean Everyone”
Project Description
Edward Chung, AB’20 (Philosophy, Human Rights)
An Animated Anthology on Black Freedom Post-Black Panther Era
Project Description
Lucia Geng, AB’21 (Political Science; Human Rights; Statistics; Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations)
Podcast: “What does mass incarceration mean in this moment?”
Project Description
Moises Rodriguez Cruz, AB’20 (Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies; Gender and Sexuality Studies)
Chattanooga Virtual Memory Quilt Project (see examples from the project on Facebook and Instagram)
Project Description