USING ART AND BIOLOGY TO TEACH SOCIAL JUSTICE

social determinants of health, immunology, climate change and demography intersect to shape health and disease.

Martinez comes to Atlanta from New York, where she was on the faculty of Columbia University. “During the pandemic we saw Black and Brown New Yorkers dying at two times the rate as White New Yorkers. It was quite stark,” Martinez says. “It really shined a light on the social inequities of the city.”

She served on a commission tasked with making social justice recommendations to Eric Adams, the new mayor of New York CIty. “We were asked to imagine New York being a just city and what we would have to do to get there,” Martinez says. Her idea for the Emory seminar grew out of that experience.

Co-teaching with a comedian puts an interesting twist on the class. A native of Georgia, Perdue graduated from Morehouse College with a degree in sociology and leadership studies.

“A leadership studies professor, Dr. Walter Fluker, had a heavy influence on how I think about using comedy to reach people and talk about difficult things,” Perdue says. “He opened my eyes to how to build community. Good comedy threads the needle and connects people across divides.”

A prolific entertainer, Perdue co-produces the free 1AM Secret Show for stand-up comedy on Saturdays at Smith’s Olde Bar in Atlanta. He has appeared at comedy festivals throughout the country and on Comedy Central and co-hosts two comedy podcasts, Forth and Ten and The Confused Caucus.

Becoming an Emory ASJ Fellow was one more opportunity for Perdue to apply his talent in meaningful ways. He and Martinez hit it off immediately through their shared commitment to social justice and building community.

Each week in the class, students discuss a different justice topic, such as food insecurity, sexual and reproductive health, incarceration and policing, climate change, environmental justice, as well as chronic health disparities and infectious diseases. They are then challenged with questions such as, “If you had executive power and limitless resources to create one policy to address this issue, what would it be?”

Workshops will help the students hone group class projects on their chosen topic, some of which will be presented in December at an Emory ASJ Project Showcase and Community Conversation. “When students leave Emory we want them to not only have a solid grounding in critical issues of social justice but also make sure that they are conversant in them,” Martinez says.“It’s one thing to know information,” she adds. “It’s a completely different thing to be a citizen of the world who can navigate conversations about difficult topics in a comfortable, responsible, respectful way.”—Carol

Clark

storytelling to ending systemic racism. Students in these seminars will also meet for dinners throughout the semester where they will discuss flourishing with experts.

Plus, starting in December, fifteen to twenty students will have the opportunity to explore flourishing and build community in a purposeful way through the inaugural Flourishing Fellows program.

Helmed by Rabbi Jordan Braunig of the Office of Spiritual and Religious Life, the fellowship is designed to equip students of all beliefs and backgrounds with the skills to facilitate deep and thoughtful conversations among their peers about a variety of social, political, and spiritual issues. Through a series of twenty-five sessions, students will learn active listening skills and work their empathy muscles.

“We are more connected than we’ve ever been and yet we’re struggling to connect with each other more than we ever have,” says Braunig. “If things are working right, if flourishing is happening, students are connecting with people across lines of identity. Yes, we want to send people out into the world who are doing amazing research in their labs, but we also want them to know how to build a friendship. It seems so basic, but it isn’t.”

Belonging Leads to Well-Being

Decades of research show that success in college is also tied to a sense of belonging outside of the classroom. At Emory, students are encouraged to bring their whole, authentic selves to campus, and the Student Flourishing initiative will help them engage in numerous ways.

Campus Life is the area where many students find their sense of belonging, whether through sports, co-curricular activities, or affinity groups. To enhance the student experience, they published the Be Well, Your Way digital resource hub in the spring to connect students to a variety of resources covering everything from mental and sexual health to academic and financial support. They also hired James Raper, Emory’s first associate vice president for health, well-being, access, and prevention.

For incoming students, Campus Life is also a place to build community early. This fall, 30 percent of first-year students participated in preorientation programs. Preorientation allows students to get a jump-start on exploring their interests, covering