Amidst the chaos of Drop/Add, some students look beyond WesMaps in their quest for classes. They can choose to enroll in student forums, seminars taught by fellow students that cover a wide range of topics. This spring, there are a total of 15 forums, covering topics such as fashion, philosophy, chemistry, farming, and yoga. Each of these forums is capped at 15 students, has a faculty advisor, and is worth either one credit or half a credit.
Many of the student forums expand upon pre-existing clubs and activities on campus. Maria Meara-Bainbridge ’13 and Haley Weaver ’14, for example, are leading a forum that is designed to recruit members for Wesleyan Diversity Education Facilitation (WesDEF). The purpose of the forum, which is called “Creating Understanding: Breaking Barriers Through Facilitation” and is advised by Chief Diversity Officer Sonia Mañjon, is to teach students how to organize and lead workshops about social justice issues on campus and beyond.
“Our class is slightly unorthodox, because we’re only going to be holding meetings the first half of the semester,” Meara-Bainbridge said. “We’ll assign readings, and each week a facilitation group will organize an activity centered around an identity category, such as race, gender, ethnicity, [or] religion.”
During the second half of the semester, the students will join the rest of the WesDEF group and attend their weekly meetings. They will also start planning a
final campus-wide facilitation.
Hailey Sowden ’15 and Joshua Krugman ’14 are also using their forum, advised by Assistant Professor of Anthropology Gillian Goslinga, to maintain a campus resource. The forum, called “Farm Form: Small Scale Organic Farming in Theory and Practice,” seeks to sustain Wesleyan’s long-standing tradition of taking care of Middletown’s Long Lane Farm.
The forum will take place both in the classroom and on the farm itself. Once a week, students will learn about the cultural background of small-scale ecological farming in America and the philosophy behind it.
“We want them to see the farm as an organism and not just as a place where humans take vegetables out of the soil,” said Krugman. “[Instead], it is the site for the integration of a lot of natural processes.”
“Yoga Theory and Practice” aims to expand upon Wesleyan’s student-taught yoga classes and clubs. The forum leaders, Shira Engel ’14 and Leigh Stewart ’13, decided to create their forum as a way for students to learn about both the physical activity of yoga and the philosophy behind it. The forum’s adviser is Adjunct Professor of Dance Susan Lourie.
Students will consider contemporary debates about yoga while exploring anatomy, subtle body movements, the importation of yoga to the Western world, and yoga’s relationship to activism. Another key component of the course is meditation.
“You simply can’t look at yoga philosophy without looking at meditation,” Engel said.
The ultimate goal of the class is to teach students to practice yoga at home.
“Musical Mentoring: A Service Learning Forum” will send Wesleyan students to the Green Street Arts Center and MacDonough Elementary School to teach music to children. Evan Scarlett ’14 and Elizabeth Reagan ’13 are teaching the seminar, which will be advised by Artist-in-Residence in Music David Nelson. The forum will supplement its weekly visits with discussions about how to teach music effectively to young children.
“Some of the kids we encounter have behavioral problems or aren’t supported by their parents to practice an instrument at home,” Reagan said. “We have to figure out a way to instruct them so they can internalize the motivation to study music on their own because music can give them an outlet to express their emotions.”
Every year at WesFest, Associate Professor of Chemistry David Westmoreland puts on a chemistry presentation to entice prefrosh. This spring, Sarah Hensiek ’13 and Patrick Sarver ’14 will use their forum to make sure the chemistry department is fully prepared for the show. Westmoreland will act as advisor.
During their forum, “The Science and Art of Chemical Demonstrations,” the students will rehearse demonstrations and discuss ways in which they can be improved. They will also learn about how to communicate information effectively and how to speak in front of a large group of people. After at least 30 potential demonstrations, the group will pick eight or nine to show at WesFest. The students also hope to show their presentations at introductory chemistry classes.
Hensiek and Sarver’s forum isn’t the only one offered through the science departments. Ethan Grund ’13 and Nick Woods ’13 are teaching a forum called “Storms in the Brain: Epilepsy from Neuroscientific, Historical, and Clinical Perspectives,” which will introduce students to the history and biology of epilepsy, the development of 20th-century treatments, and modern perspectives on the disease. Professor of Biology and Neuroscience and Behavior Janice Naegele will advise the forum.
“Through exposure to firsthand perspectives from patients—interview, video, and works of nonfiction—we will aim to provide a humanistic and personal understanding of epilepsy,” Woods and Grund wrote in the course syllabus.
Yet another science-related forum is called “Birds of Central Connecticut: An Introduction to Field Ornithology,” taught by Oliver James ’14 and Taran Catania ’13, and advised by Professor of Biology and Earth and Environmental Sciences Barry Chernoff. This course is designed to introduce students to bird life and behavior, and specifically to provide them with knowledge about local birds.
“We’re hoping that students can leave the seminar with the skills to identify birds by things like sight, sound, behavior, and physiology,” James said.
James and Catania are tossing around ideas for the forum’s final project, some of which include creating a Field Guide to the Birds of Wesleyan, building bird feeders and houses around campus, and maybe setting the record for the number of bird species seen in one day in Middlesex County.
Many of the spring forums will focus on specific social justice issues. Alexandra Patrick ’13 is teaching a discussion-based forum called “Intersectionality, Intimate Partner Violence & the State,” advised by Assistant Professor of American Studies and Anthropology Margot Weiss. The course will explore intimate partner violence through an intersectional lens, specifically examining interactions with the criminal justice system, the legal system, and the welfare system.
The anti-domestic violence movement has been criticized for universalizing all women’s experiences with domestic violence while focusing attention on the needs of middle-class white women.
“The course will build on these critiques, centering on voices and experiences of those [on] the margins… and examining the context within which they experience violence, poverty, structural racism, and increasing criminalization and incarceration,” Patrick wrote in an email to The Argus. “Finally we will look at emerging activisms and possibilities for reform.”
Another social justice forum is called “Issues in Deaf Education,” taught by Samantha Melvin ’13 and advised by Professor of American Studies Patricia Hill. The seminar is designed for students interested in American Sign Language, deaf culture, and how to educate children with special needs. Melvin will examine these issues through lenses of psychology, pedagogy, governmental policy, and school choices.
“PUSH: The Politicized Workings of Birth in America” is another forum this semester that explores inequity in our culture. Even though birth is one of the most common life events in America, many people are unaware of the philosophy and politics behind it.
This forum, created by Hannah Cressy ’13 and Kelsey Henry ’15 and also advised by Goslinga, will teach students about the history of childbirth in America through a feminist and anthropological lens. In particular, Henry and Cressy will examine the medicalization of childbirth and how it has unfairly affected certain groups based on factors such as race, class, sexuality, immigrant status, and disabilities.
Andrew Postman ’15 and David Stouck ’15, advised by Assistant Professor of English Matthew Garrett, will also be exploring issues of identity and social minorities, but through an entirely different lens: rap music. Their forum, “From Afrika Bambaataa to Azealia Banks: The Social Theory of American Rap Lyrics,” discusses the introduction of rap music in the 20th century and how it allowed previously silenced issues like gender, class, and race come to the surface.
“Every other Friday, Andrew and I are attempting to bring in a speaker (professors, artists, you name it) to add a lecture component to the forum-style classroom setting,” Postman wrote in an email to The Argus.
Francisco (“Kiko”) Hernandez ’14 and Benjamin Docter ’14 will also use their forum “Calvin, Hobbes, and Calvin & Hobbes” to explore the politics behind another aspect of popular culture. Hernandez and Docter, advised by Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Professor in the College of Social Studies Donald Moon, will analyze Bill Watterson’s comic strip “Calvin & Hobbes” by exploring its relationship to some of the most notable social and political theorists in the Western cannon.
“Calvin and Hobbes is about a six-year-old who is going through the basics of everyday life: getting beaten up, meeting a girl he has a crush on, etc.” Hernandez said. “The goal is to see how this comic strip applies to themes such as the social contract, freedom and liberty, morality, religion, and/or capitalism.”
Ava Bysiewicz Donaldson ’13 and Genevieve Aniello ’13 have structured their own forum around a recent exhibit at the Metroplitan Museum of Art that was titled “Impossible Conversations.” The exhibit engaged fashion icons Elsa Schiaparelli and Miuccia Prada in hypothetical discussions, based on the idea that even though they worked in different time periods, their styles were so closely related that it was often difficult to discern who had designed which garment. Professor of Romance Languages & Literatures Norman Shapiro will advise the forum.
“[The exhibit] just flowed like one single clothing line over the span of many years,” said Bysiewicz Donaldson.
At the beginning of each class, the students will watch video clips about the exhibitions’ artists and discuss the themes that are represented, such as what it means to be “chic” and how the body is portrayed as a carrier of narratives.
This semester, Nathaniel Dolton-Thornton ’15 will teach “Working for Intelligent Landscape Design at Wesleyan (WILD Wes): Edible Forest Gardens and Sustainable Landscape Design,” which will focus on permaculture, landscape design, and plant biology.
A group of students will work on landscape design projects for the area surrounding Summerfields, while the rest of the students will coordinate with administrators in the hopes of bringing their designs to fruition. They will also choose another landscape for future design projects. Associate Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies Michael Singer will advise the forum.
President Michael Roth expressed enthusiasm about the presence of student forums at Wesleyan and was particularly impressed with the WILD Wes forum, whose final critique he visited in a previous year.
“It was one of the best things I’ve seen at Wesleyan,” Roth said. “The student work was serious and rigorous, the critiques were harsh and demanding and appreciative where they should have been, and it was just a great thing.”