SUMMER 2022
SUMMER ’22 | 1 FIRST YEAR STUDENTS SECOND LINE OUT ONTO MCALISTER PLACE FOLLOWING THEIR CONVOCATION ON THURSDAY, AUGUST 19, 2021, LED BY DR. MICHAEL WHITE AND ORIGINAL LIBERTY BRASS BAND PHOTO BY NATHAN TUCKER
Our seventh issue of the Tulane School of Liberal Arts Magazine was an exhilarating challenge. From shifts within our editorial team to the ongoing production and supply chain disruptions caused by Hurricane Ida, then the Delta and Omicron variants of Covid-19, much of this past school year has been unpredictable. So when it came time to develop this issue, we knew it would be an issue like no other. But we also felt excitement knowing it was an opportunity to take advantage, both critically and creatively.
THE COLLABORATION ISSUE
liberal artsTULANE SCHOOL OF MAGAZINE SUMMER 22 | VOL. 4 | NO. 1 EDITORIAL DIRECTORS JULIANA ARGENTINO BRIAN T. EDWARDS ART DIRECTOR ARIELLE PENTES DESIGNER MEGHAN SAAS CONTRIBUTORS CORY-ALICEEDWIGEFRANCISCOLUKEANDRÉ-JOHNSONAULD-THOMASMIAL.BAGNERISCASEYBECKMARCELLOCANUTOESTRADA-BELLIDENISEFRAZIERROBERTFYVOLENTDOUGLASN.HARRISASMAAMANSOURVICKIMAYERLAURAMCKINNEYBILLYSAASTYLERSIMIENREBECCASNEDEKERSHREYASRIGIRITAMALETTALBAYEVWILLIAM"BILL"TAYLORENGYZIEDAN SPECIAL THANKS ANNA JOSEPHJENNYJOHNSONMERCEINMISTROTCAMERONTODDVERAWILLIAMS SCHOOL OF LIBERAL ARTS LEADERSHIPDEAN BRIAN T. EDWARDS ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR FACULTY AFFAIRS HOLLY FLORA ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR RESEARCH & GRADUATE PROGRAMS KATHARINE JACK ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR ACADEMIC INITIATIVES & CURRICULUM VICKI MAYER DIRECTOR OF MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS JULIANA ARGENTINO The Tulane School of Liberal Arts Magazine is published twice a year by the School of Liberal Arts Office of the Dean. Material may only be reprinted with permission. We would love to hear from you! Send letters to the editor at SLAmagfeedback@tulane.edu. To support Tulane’s School of Liberal Arts, contact Laurel Walker at cwalker11@tulane.edu.
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From the student perspective, the best way to define collaboration might be to frame it as the process of two or more individuals working together towards the completion of a task, like the oftreferenced, even notorious, group project. But for our purposes, a more appropriate definition would be two or more people or organizations working together to achieve shared goals. And while we did become resourceful and imaginative in our collaborative efforts to execute this publication, the more meaningful inspiration behind the theme of this issue is in the partnerships our stories explore within its pages. This magazine spotlights recent and exciting work happening as a result of our passionate, innovative leaders—in their classrooms and in their fields—seeking ever-evolving ways to engage and challenge their students. Our contributors and interviewees range in background from members of our school’s leadership team to professors, researchers and students at every level, to community artists, small business owners and distinguished alumni. And our perpetual focus on the crucial duality of a global liberal arts with a service-oriented education in the city of New Orleans is reflected in the stories on every page. From the co-teaching across disciplines to the cross-campus connections between our economics faculty and the School of Public Health and the city- and region-spanning partnerships coming out of numerous departments, these articles illuminate how our students are learning: to analyze critically, communicate effectively, strategize accordingly and execute collaboratively. Together, they work towards meaningful, diverse outcomes in their time at Tulane. Together, we work to guide and equip these students for whatever comes next. Together, this knitting of pursuits, voices and perspectives is The Collaboration Issue. — J.A.
SUMMER ’22 | 3 PROPOSING COLLABORATION AS A KEY PRINCIPLE OF THE LIBERAL ARTS by Brian T. Edwards A CURRENT OF COLLABORATION BEYOND UPTOWN New Orleans Center for the Gulf South CLASS OF 2022 SPOTLIGHT Tyler Simien RESEARCH SPURRED BY ECONOMISTS LEADS TO COVID STUDY A COOPERATIVE FEATURE OF INTERDISCIPLINARY LIBERAL ARTS INITIATIVES 2022 DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARD RECIPIENT Robert Fyvolent THE COLLABORATION ISSUE 4 6 26 28 10 32 » Co-Teaching: Tenenbaum Sophomore Tutorials » Collaboration: Middle American Research Institute » Co-Teaching: Digital Media Practices with Theatre & Dance » Collaboration: Africana Studies + Black Studies Book Club » Service-Learning: Summer Courses in New Orleans Industries
Centering collaboration is more against the grain than it might at first seem given most metrics for measuring success revolve around solo performance. In baseball, even the more sophisticated evolution in keeping statistics—known as saber metrics—orients around individual players. Team statistics are relatively few. In a research university, faculty are evaluated for tenure and promotion on their own productivity, with no clear guidelines to measure joint project success. Typically, when a scholar in the liberal arts disciplines has a high number of co-authored papers, tenure reviewers take pains to identify and emphasize how much the scholar did on their own. While I understand the impulse—we are tenuring an individual, not their research partners—this seems to me to miss a good part of the point.
“The questions we’re trying to answer are complex and multi-dimensional,” explains Hassig on why collaboration was key to their work: they were dealing with systems that involved humans, animals and pathogens. Hassig is blunt: “There’s no one person who can encompass the high level of capacity in all those things simultaneously, and so collaboration and interdis ciplinary engagement are central.” If top researchers recognize the value of coming together to grapple with a complex ques tion, what does that mean for a liberal arts education?
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Proposing Collaboration as a Key Principle of the Liberal Arts BY BRIAN T.
EDWARDS
It may seem surprising to propose collaboration as a key value of a liberal arts education. Much of what we seem to focus on in higher ed is built around develop ing the individual. If you are a student, you are well aware of the way college is organized around your personal responsibil ities: you do the reading, you write the papers, and you take the exams. Most professors want you to be able to show that you know the material on your own and that you can produce arguments or research independently. Try to “collaborate” on your papers or your midterms and you’ll find yourself in front of the honor board.
I am not suggesting we move away from the development of the individual, which only comes with intense effort over a long period of time. But as part of that education, I do encourage us to develop the individual’s ability as a collaborator, and to urge our students to seek out and embrace opportunities for joint projects and endeavors. This could be as simple as taking an innovative approach to the
It starts long before you get to college, of course, from the building of personal resumes back in high school to the rigors of the college application process. Highly selective col leges proudly tout their acceptance rate, a stomach-clenching number that pits you alone against tens of thousands of other applicants. Admissions asks for a personal essay to reveal the inner you to an admissions committee. The process suggests that college is about the individual.
But collaboration is how the big initiatives get done. In deed, one of the principles employers value most is teamwork. Any organization, from a baseball team to a task force to the dean’s office, performs more successfully when the dynamics of the group are in harmony and its members support each other’s strengths, weaknesses and needs. A well-functioning group will get further than one that relies solely on a high achieving individual. In the sports world, the all-star gets most of the airtime; in the corporate world, we tend to focus on the CEO. But that distracts us from what produces a championship or a successful company and occludes a key attribute of true leaders: those who value the team as collaborators. We are at a truly unique moment in our recent history. Coming through a global pandemic and period of acute calls for societal change, the challenges we face require more than heroic individuals. Cooperation with colleagues of different tal ents and knowledges will be vital to addressing the problems sure to dominate all sectors for the next generation. That’s especially true for what policy planners call “wicked prob lems”—those so intricate that they require insights from mul tiple specializations. The biggest of these—called “super wick ed problems”—are so complex that solving one aspect impacts another, changing the problem as it is addressed. Examples include global climate change or structural racism. We need all hands, together, on deck. We accept that collaboration is essential in higher educa tion, yet we haven’t developed a pedagogy—nor even a full vo cabulary—for celebrating and teaching it. A new approach to a liberal arts education must include collaboration as a central tenet. This issue includes a conversation I had with a team of Tulane researchers—Economics Department faculty members Doug Harris and Engy Ziedan and Professor of Public Health Susan Hassig—who worked together on a study to understand the impact of school re-openings on Covid-19 transmission. I follow the story of how they came upon an innovative way to address a research question. The dialogue between these scholars reveals not only how their collaboration led to an im portant discovery, but more significantly for my purposes, how it expanded and framed their question itself.
DEAN EDWARDS AS PART OF THE DEAN’S SPEAKER SERIES ON ANTI-RACISM
AND PROFESSOR LIONEL MCPHERSON, RIGHT, RECORDING A PODCAST EPISODE
These are the times for bold new approaches to our work— inside and beyond the classroom. As we shift our focus from the heroic individual to the successful group, we might come one step closer to addressing the bigger questions and chal lenges.
The performing arts are another important place to turn. Even those who haven’t worked on a theatrical production or movie themselves know that while the actors onstage or on screen command our focus, the production crew and countless people backstage or behind the camera make the show or film what it is. A similar point could be made about a jazz combo and the role of the rhythm section in supporting the soloist, or the kinds of collaborations Tulane composer and musician Courtney Bryan spoke about in our last issue.
AND THE DISCIPLINES; MCPHERSON, OF TUFTS UNIVERSITY, JOINED EDWARDS IN A DIALOGUE AND WORKSHOP ON ANTI-RACISM AND PHILOSOPHY IN OCTOBER 2021
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Now, of course students get involved in theatre, dance, music and filmmaking for their own reasons, not to become better in corporate settings down the line. Still, I encourage students with experiences in any of the arts to leverage it when they present themselves to employers—particularly those out side the arts. This may be surprising, but I would argue that I learned as much about running the School of Liberal Arts (which has about 400 faculty and 100 staff) by creating and leading a small theater company after college as I did from more traditional academic and leadership appointments. It was there I learned how to manage a complex and diverse set of people (and their skills and personalities), delegate tasks ef fectively, deal with backstage crises and build off the strength of the larger collective. So the next time you’re assigned a group project and start to have that sinking feeling that your class mates in the group aren’t going to carry their weight, I ask you to pause. Rather than taking on the burden of doing extra work yourself to get the A—and being frustrated through out—try to think about what it would take for your group to function better. What would the process lead to if you commu nicated with your classmates and leveraged your unique tal ents toward the shared goal? Would you ask more ambitious questions? Come upon your findings differently or even come to different findings?
classic group assignment, one that builds on and leverages spe cific talents of group members. In other cases, it might mean joining interdisciplinary projects, such as those that bridge environmental studies, environmental science and public pol icy—a combination fueling our new collaborations with the Department of River-Coastal Science and Engineering around science-based policy and the environmental humanities. Or it might be to model joint research projects such as those that brought together historians and literature scholars in a course on “hidden histories of tourism” in our Tenenbaum Sopho more Tutorials course. Whatever the particular pathways—and whether they lead to successes or apparent failures—I want to encourage students and new graduates to highlight those experiences for employers and other future collaborators. Everyone knows the value of listing teamwork as a skill in a resume or cover letter, but not everyone can actually speak to an example of working through a problem as a team (or what they learned doing so) when asked in the interview.
In the last issue of this magazine, I argued that a liberal arts education is the best training for the careers of the future. As part of that effort, we need to showcase precisely how we in the liberal arts disciplines are uniquely able to teach and learn how to collaborate. The vibrancy of our interdisciplinary pro grams and departments—such as Asian Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Africana Studies, Environmental Studies, Jewish Studies, and our new Middle East and North African Studies, to pick some of the largest—is built on the idea that those with particular disciplinary training can contribute to a larger understanding of complex areas and topics.
When it comes to the Gulf South region and the future of its communities, collaboration is a matter of survival.
A Current of Collaboration
THE GULF SOUTH ASSISTANT DIRECTOR AND NATIVE NEW ORLEANIAN DENISE FRAZIER HAS AN INTERDISCIPLINARY PHD IN LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES AND IS A LIFELONG MUSICIAN AND PERFORMANCE ARTIST; SHE IS A MEMBER OF THE MUSIC ENSEMBLE LES CENELLES AND THEATRE COMPANY GOAT IN THE ROAD
“That survival,” says Frazier, “is intrinsically linked to valuing each other as human beings, appreciating both our in dividual and shared humanity, determining how we can col laborate, effectively communicating with one other—and then relating and applying all of these components to our knowledge building and education.”
Within all its work, NOCGS strives to create spaces to brainstorm, cooperate, and learn together, approaching each experience with Snedeker’s provocation: “Dare to look around. Dare to look within.” As interdisciplinary artists themselves, its directors are no strangers to collaboration. They encourage the staging of settings where scholars, artists and knowledge-bear ers outside of academia can communicate across areas of ex pertise and gain deeper understandings of pressing, complex problems—such as how climate change and environmental racism are impacting Southern Louisiana and the world. This work is not always easy, and friction is bound to occur, but it is a natural and often productive dynamic.
The ideology of the center—as well as the intrinsic na ture of its work—encourages experimental programming alongside more traditional symposia and on-campus lectures.
As Snedeker explains, “We’re accustomed to, and skilled in, working with groups of people and ensembles in a variety of ways, and we've brought our willingness to address uncom fortable tensions to our research and our programming—and allowed it to inform the center’s practices.”
NEW ORLEANS CENTER
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At the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South (NOCGS) in the School of Liberal Arts at Tu lane, directors Rebecca Snedeker and Denise Frazier develop their programming around the belief that the more we under stand where we are, the more fully we can engage in cultivating a collective destiny—our future and survival in this region.
Much of NOCGS’s collaborative work focuses on under standing the Gulf South region, its place in the world, and its relevance in global climate change research. In 2018, NOCGS entered a partnership with the Haus der Kulturen der Welt and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin, on an ongoing, international, interdisciplinary project called the Anthropocene Curriculum The term Anthropocene is intend ed to be a useful concept that proposes our present geological era to be the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment. NOCGS joined this project by co-organizing and hosting the week-long Anthropocene River Campus at Tulane, where participants from 30 countries explored social, political, economic, and ecological topics through collaborative research, immersive site-based experiences, and collective discourse.
Programming often includes immersive, place-based learning experiences that instigate research on the built and natural environment of the Gulf South region. NOCGS supports sev eral research fellowships for scholars and artists, as well as a biennial Gulf South Writer in the Woods position, a collabora tion between the center and A Studio in the Woods. Through collaboratively-taught courses and the Third Coast Residential Program, NOCGS partners with environmental activist and cultural organizations across New Orleans and the Gulf South, as well as other Tulane entities, to give students experiences that focus on understanding how culture and environment lo cally intertwine, and to address the ways in which students’ academic and professional goals can actively contribute to the interests of our surrounding community, and the university’s participation in their advancement.
CLARK EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE NEW ORLEANS CENTER FOR THE GULF SOUTH REBECCA SNEDEKER IS AN EMMY AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER; SHE IS ALSO THE CODIRECTOR OF A BOOK PROJECT WITH OVER 40 CONTRIBUTING WRITERS, ARTISTS, CARTOGRAPHERS, AND RESEARCHERS, AND HAS SERVED ON THE STEERING COMMITTEE OF NEW DAY 50-YEAR-OLDFILMS,CO-OP OF INDEPENDENT FILMMAKERS DISTRIBUTING THEIR WORK TOGETHER AS A COLLECTIVE
Beyond Uptown
Deeply collaborative work requires trust-building, intense communication, self-reflection, compassion, understanding and grace. Over time, the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South has nurtured a diverse constellation of voices and ex plored sites through which they create offerings that impact the lives of many and—significantly—the future of our region.
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TULANEANNUALGULF SOUTH INDIGENOUS STUDIES SYMPOSIUM MELLON GRANT FOR ONCOLLABORATIONCONTINUED CURRICULUMANTHROPOCENE
C ENTER FOR THE G ULF S OUTH | TULANE SCHOOL OF LIBERAL ARTS MAGAZINE N EW O RLEANS
NOCGS received a $150K grant from the An drew W. Mellon Foundation and Macalester College to continue its role in the internation al Anthropocene Curriculum project. Over the next three years and with several partners, they will collaborate with research-based art ists and scholars to develop higher ed envi ronmental humanities curricular materials, co-create a digital humanities website and support a domestic study abroad program. Snedeker and Frazier have investigated the Anthropocene framework since 2018, along side local, upriver, and international col leagues in the Braid and Flow virtual series, and via presenting at The Shape of a Practice conference and Anthropocene Campus, Ven ice. In 2021, they launched AnthropoSonic, presenting composers whose work lies at the intersection of climate change and sound; and, in 2022, AnthropoFest, a performative workshop collecting, creating, and respond ing to a time capsule of objects and cosmic matter at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in the Louisiana Folklife Village’s new Sustainability Tent. In Spring 2022, NOCGS presented the fourth installment of this symposium that brought scholars, artists, and practitioners from dif ferent backgrounds together for learning, contemplation and community. Created in response to the tricentennial of the found ing of the colonial city of New Orleans, this symposium has become the center’s annual signature event. Presenters included mem bers from thirteen regional tribes and several universities and organizations who addressed the myriad ways this culture is practiced—and endangered— via areas like sports, foodways, storytelling, and the plantation/petrochemical complex. Special consideration was given to the impact of climate change on Indigenous communities, following Hurricane Ida’s land fall last fall in an area home to several tribes.
Keynote speaker Dr. Andrew Jolivétte (Ataka pa-Ishak Nation), founding director of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Pro gram at UC San Diego, delivered a talk titled “Thrivance Circuitry: Queer Afro-Indigenous Futurity and Kinship Through Wi hokišak kuš in Louisiana and Beyond.”
UPRIVER
CREATE SOUND MAPS OF THE CORRIDORPETROCHEMICAL 10 ARCHIVEVOICESOFGATHERINGSPOWERFULBECOMING&ARTICLE 9
Amplifies Regional Voices in Learning
2022 saw the 10th iteration of the collabora tive public programming series, Women and Movement. With inspiration from the NOLA 4Women project and support from choreog rapher and Tulane alumna Jarrell Hamilton, NOCGS launched this series to engage region al women scholars and artists in discourse about place, performance and the socio-polit ical issues that transform bodies, art, language and community. Past events have featured na tionally renowned and region- based women including Courtney Bryan, Asali DeVan Eclessi astes, Gia Hamilton, Autumn Knight, Stephanie McKee-Anderson, Kesha McKey, Jia Tolentino, and Angela Tucker. And every spring, NOCGS partners with Theatre & Dance Professor John “Ray” Proctor to produce panel discus sion “African American Women Affecting the Arts,” moderated by No Dream Deferred di rector Lauren Turner. Snedeker and Frazier are currently co-authoring a piece about the findings of these biannual dialogues.
NOCGS collaborates with faculty and stu dents through this program to plan immersive research trips to various Southern Louisiana sites. Third Coast students, Tulane faculty and staff, scholars, environmental activists, art ists, and the public are invited to trips each semester. Last summer, a Central City tour with undergraduate student assistant Jamia Brown explored local funerary practices, ge ology, urban farming and foodways, culture and architecture through the footprint of one neighborhood. The group visited Mon roe Fellows and alums Theodore Pierre and Susanne Hackett’s Pierre Parlante (Speaking Stones) project in Lafayette Cemetery #2, Ms. Jeannette Bell’s community garden, the Al bert and Tina Small Center for Collaborative Design, and the Southern Food and Beverage Museum. In Spring 2022, graduate student Ryan Clarke helped organized Listening for Southern Resistance, an immersive research excursion along Cancer Alley with Jessica Dandridge, director of The Water Collabora tive. Participants met residents of Gordon Pla za and activists from RISE St. James along the petrochemical corridor where they consid ered the impacts of environmental racism and recorded audio for a collective soundscape, and sketched the corridor for the eventual co-creation of a regional sound map. This journal of New Orleans-based creative nonfiction storytelling is written and pro duced with students in English Department Professor Michael Luke’s journalism course alongside local high school students from partner institutions including Bard Early College, Morris Jeff, and New Orleans Char ter Science & Math. For the last eight years, Luke’s students have read, examined, and analyzed New Orleans and Louisiana-based journalism in tandem with Krewe, thanks to a generous gift from the late Andrew Fred man (A&S ’84). They are required to get out of the classroom and confines of Uptown to engage with New Orleanians, cover often-un derreported communities and dig deeper into their stories. Through the coursework, under graduates explore the wide range of issues that make New Orleans a simultaneously chal lenging and alluring place. They act as Tulane student mentors, paired with high schoolers to provide guidance throughout the journal ism process and, eventually, help the younger students to produce their own pieces for the magazine—designed and printed by Southern Letterpress.
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CELEBRATING THE 17TH ISSUE OF KREWE, A NOCGS JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS STORIES COAST TRAVELS TO
10 | TULANE SCHOOL OF LIBERAL ARTS MAGAZINE Within the humanities, social sciences, and fine and performing arts, our faculty seek to find ways to create opportunities for learning across traditional and new areas of study. The ensuing five spotlights illustrate how our faculty’s recent efforts in co-teaching are demonstrating new approaches to model collaboration. A COOPERATIVE FEATURE: 5 INTERDISCIPLINARY LIBERAL ARTS INITIATIVES MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICAN (MENA) STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY CREATIVE INDUSTRIES + ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES DIGITAL MEDIA PRACTICES WITH DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE & DANCE AFRICANA STUDIES 11 16 20 14 18 READ ON FOR A COLLECTION OF CONVERSATIONS ABOUT THE CURRENT PARTNERSHIPS AT WORK BY FACULTY IN:
I think both of us had very similar outlooks on how we wanted to guide learning. We were adamant to stay away from any sort of political indoctrination. Instead, we drew on our literary training to encourage individual interpretations of texts and contexts, and agreed the work of critique in the MANSOUR (LEFT), MELLON POSTDOCTORAL
Intersection
THE TENENBAUM SOPHOMORE TUTORIALS BRING TOGETHER FACULTY AND STUDENTS IN SMALL GROUP DISCUSSIONS, CREATING AN OPPORTUNITY TO EXPLORE INTELLECTUAL PASSION WHILE ENGAGING IN HUMANISTIC RESEARCH. THE PROGRAM INCORPORATES INDIVIDUAL TUTORIALS TO ALLOW STUDENTS TO PURSUE INDEPENDENT PROJECTS IN THE HUMANITIES AND HUMANISTIC SOCIAL SCIENCES. STUDENTS ARE ENCOURAGED TO GO BEYOND TRADITIONAL MATERIAL AS THEY TEAM UP WITH A LIBERAL ARTS FACULTY MEMBER WHO MENTORS AND GUIDES THEIR RESEARCH.
DURING THE SPRING 2022 SEMESTER, PROFESSORS EDWIGE TAMALET TALBAYEV AND ASMAA MANSOUR CO-CREATED A COURSE CALLED “HOME AND THE WORLD: DIASPORIC ARAB AMERICAN EXPERIENCES.” WHAT FOLLOWS IS A CONVERSATION BETWEEN THE TWO AND ONE OF THEIR STUDENTS, SHREYA SRIGIRI (SLA ’24), ABOUT THE COLLABORATIVE NATURE OF THE PROGRAM AND THE KIND OF LEARNING IT ENCOURAGED.
ETT: Ha, very true.
ETT: The format works to foster individualized feedback. The teaching during tutorials adapts to student interest and fol lows each student's own pace. This is not a top-down process with instructors imparting knowledge. In this class, each stu dent is placed front and center, and this sense of accountabil ity fosters independence and future collaborative skills, such as the responsibility to come prepared, and to demonstrate a certain degree of professionalism within tutorial meetings.
SHREYA SRIGIRI (SS): One of the strongest components of this class for me was how you both presented the material, with every contributing source adding perspective. What is your connection to diasporic Arab American experiences? What made you want to teach this topic?
Seminar
EDWIGE TAMALET TALBAYEV (ETT): The Arab immigrant experience I teach and know best is the immigration from the North African region—the Maghreb—to Europe, which is framed very differently [than this]. In our class, I wanted to look further into diasporic Arab communities in a U.S. context, to examine the issue of migration and exile compara tively, beyond immigration to Europe.
FELLOW IN MENA STUDIES, CO-TEACHING A “HOME AND THE WORLD” SEMINAR WITH TAMALET TALBAYEV, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF FRENCH AND DIRECTOR OF MENA STUDIES, IN MAY 2022
SS: One of the main differences with the Tenenbaum Tutori als, juxtaposed with my other classes, is the one-on-one time I get with you as my professors. The foundation of this class is collaboration, so I would like to ask what collaboration truly means to you.
SS: The ideas we covered are very raw, uncomfortable con cepts, including race, gender, sex, prejudice, stereotypes, and religion. Being able to have these conversations is a privilege, and it is a representation of higher education: having the space to delve into existing dichotomies and interpersonal re lationships that contribute to the world we live in today. I be lieve it was also reflected in the class visits that gave us more insight into primary sources, such as from Professors Matt Sakakeeny, Marie-Pierre Ulloa, and Nadine Naber. How do you believe this Oxford-tutorial style teaching to be integral to the kind of perspective this class provides?
A at the of Issues and Individuals
AM: Co-teaching in general requires a lot of trust and respect. It is like sharing your chocolate cake!
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AM: Creating something valuable with my colleague and being able to share that with students interested in the material is something I am so grateful to have experienced. As an early career scholar myself, I want to thank you, Edwige, for your support throughout this class, for giving me space to lead without creating an imbalance. I have definitely learned from your style of teaching. It has been a wonderful experience to see how we have progressed throughout the semester, and it felt very natural.
ETT: Definitely. There was an organic flow between us. Even with different interpretations and teaching styles, we reached a sort of balance. Working collaboratively has helped foster even more collaboration, and it has opened up new space for participation.
ASMAA MANSOUR (AM): I believe in making the humanities purposeful, and I believe that in teaching what we teach, we push students to re-think some of their misconceptions and examine their implicit biases or pre-existing stereotypes. I wouldn’t want to change students’ views, but rather create a safe space for them to think critically and perhaps envision a world free from hegemony, racial discrimination, and social injustices.
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SS: It’s why diversity is important. My classmates being genuinely interested in the realities of a second-generation immigrant has been very validating of my experience and has achieved a sense of visibility. Not many professors are able to make that happen in their class. Which leads to the question, as you mentioned Professor Mansour: are we talking about Arab American experience or are we talking about the Amer ican experience? This country is built on immigration. Immi grants are a part of what this country is, which is reflected in large city hubs such as New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. This class was the first time I felt I did not have to prove that I am a part of America. And this was exhibited in the beauty of my classmates trying to interact with difficult issues, not side-stepping them.
AM: Definitely, we wanted to ease students’ apprehension, where they are eager to learn about Arab American culture but may worry about being offensive. This makes me feel that things are changing, that students are invested and ready to talk about sensitive topics, but just need the encouragement to take the initiative and feel comfortable asking questions. I always ask questions and make sure students’ voices are heard and respected, especially when they talk about general ly unfamiliar topics or pronounce complex Arabic terms.
Audre Lorde once said: “your silence will not protect you.” This class has broken the silence about the intersection be tween race and politics, Islam and gender/sexuality, “Islamic” terrorism, the immigrant experience, etc. From banal experi ences such as names being mispronounced, to considerations of what a “real” American is.
Regardless of background, I encourage inquiry. In this way, we bring the theoretical into the practical, and interlink the personal with the political. While most of my students have different positionalities and experiences, I take pride in seeing them center the voice of the Other instead of being the mouth piece for them. We ultimately move away from “exoticizing” or “saving” the Other to “using” whatever privileges we might have to uplift and establish solidarity with these groups.
AM: I think the class structure gives an individualized expe rience, where you get to know students and how they work, and also goes beyond just talking about assignments, as the focus is really on the challenges they face. We designed a syllabus that helped students develop a cross-cultural under standing of different ways of living and knowing.
AM: “Home and the World” has inspired students to think of MENA countries not as alien, faraway places, but rather coun tries relevant to the United States.
SS: Are there other classes at Tulane that focus on Arab cul ture?
ETT: This is a forum to consider what we have in common across groups, to theorize potential coalitions. We are talking about Arab American identity narratives, but we also look be yond the U.S., at the transnational arcs of these diasporas, at the world from which they come. This is also thinking of our selves and our lives in this global framework, as always being part of something beyond our most immediate environment.
ETT: We aim to help students move beyond media narratives and facile dichotomies. We wanted them to hear things from the perspective of this Arab American community which was invisible for so long—as evidenced by the fact that there isn’t an Arab American box on the census form to this day. This is a very powerful mission statement for us, one that provides an opportunity to formulate reparative steps.
SS: Definitely, we do not always agree.
ETT: And as a teacher, your response to our class, Shreya, has been one of the most rewarding moments for me. The fact that it became this ontological experience for you, that it spurred you to write poetry and to feel enough trust to share it. This kind of connection has happened a few times in my career, but not that often. I cherish those moments.
SS: In the end, we are all much closer than we think. This class gave us not just content topics but how to approach important subjects in a respectful setting, which is an invalu able skill. I want to be able to talk about issues like this head on in my career. I am a creative writer, and the material has been so personalized that I’ve been inclined to exhibit what it meant to me through art; more specifically, poetry.
ETT: Of course! One of the objectives of this course was to show how these Arab American experiences connect back to the vibrant culture of the Middle East North African region. Our brand-new MENA Studies program offers a variety of courses across the disciplines that illuminate the historical, linguistic, cultural, and political complexity and richness of this region.
SS: The tutorials really extend their impact into the class room and have called for this dynamic shift of authority that is necessary to bring about quality discussions in our semi nars. The shift from professor to mentor really contributes to the standard required within the classroom, as the topics bring about a constructive dialogue between everyone.
classroom was to take center stage. We would give pointers, correct logic and arguments, provide contextual and histori cal feedback, but were always mindful to not impose our own world view. This may be the most resonant form of collabora tion—the one we developed with students, individually and as a group. The idea was to think together even if we disagreed, to have a generative dialogue despite diverging opinions.
ETT: The idea for us when conceiving this class was to create the context for inquiry where all students get to shed preju dice and get out of their comfort zone in a respectful, collabo rative way. To reach across cultural and religious differences, to really hear others’ perspectives, others’ experiences, and to get a chance to exchange ideas with students they would not necessarily encounter during their time at Tulane. We work toward understanding common values, and work against what could be barriers. Regardless of our backgrounds, and the fact that we may not agree most of the time.
“My painting signifies surviving an experience of sexual violence. The tree intertwined with the body portrays growth intertwined with suffering. The dark skies at the top contrast from the blooming field of flowers below, and in between is a gray hue with clearly messy strokes—as the middle part of healing is a gray area that can feel messy. The choice of gray also speaks to the “gray area” of consent, when an experience can be confusing and cause pain. Though hard to see, sparkles on the chest signify resilience and body autonomy.”
Anna Johnson, SLA ’24
“I am a woman of color, and this class has helped define my space not only here at Tulane, but in the world, too. It has been one of the most liberating, memorable, and meaningful experiences for me as a student. I am a creative writer, and the material has been so personalized that I was inclined to exhibit what it meant to me through art; more specifically, poetry.”
Shall I search for you in the coconut oil my grandmother Pulls through my long, dark lock of hair, as the jasmine flowers sway to the tune of the tabla. Finding the beauty in the rhythmic patting of my carnatic teacher’s hand took me years, as I sit at twenty years old, yearning to hear her voice lull my restless heart.
ABOVE: SPRING 2022 STUDENT SUBMISSIONS
SUMMER ’22 | 1313
I stare at your face, no crookedness to your nose, eyes bluer than the sky we walk under. My darker sisters running their hands through my hair, whispering about the strength it endures. Where do I fit into this, this dichotomy of beauty and pain, walking the same path, yet catching his blue eyes searing into my hips, my waist as I dance to the rhythm of my breath, his gaze scorching the flames of my heart. But the sky eventually meets the horizon, and you will always find your way to her soft, blue eyes, leaving mine burning in the sun’s Youangst.lust over the curves of me and my darker sisters, yet you slight the weight of our scars, as you claim they are too rigid, too deep. The grief you inflict upon me leaves me craving the comforting heartache I have carried from generations of women past, as that path of hot stones is one familiar, pricking my every step.
I found abandonment, reflected in your glassy, striking blue eyes, and a sweet sorrow in the scent of jasmine floating from oceans wide, Where do I call you?
Home By Shreya Srigiri Where do I call you?
WE ASKED TWO FACULTY MEMBERS NEW TO THE DIGITAL MEDIA PRACTICES (DMP) PROGRAM—CASEY BECK AND BILLY SAAS—TO DISCUSS HOW COLLABORATION PLAYS INTO THEIR TEACHING AND SHARE TECHNIQUES THEY’VE FOUND EFFECTIVE IN HELPING STUDENTS BECOME STRONGER CANDIDATES FOR COMPETITIVE JOBS. BECK TEACHES “DIRECTING ACTORS” IN DMP CONCURRENTLY WITH THE DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE’S “ACTING FOR OTHER MEDIA” CLASS. SAAS IS JOINTLY APPOINTED IN COMMUNICATION AND DMP, WHERE HE TEACHES COURSES ON PODCAST PRODUCTION, CULTURAL STUDIES AND RHETORIC & POLITICAL ECONOMY.
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ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF THEATRE & DANCE JENNY MERCEIN, WHO CO-TEACHES “ACTING FOR OTHER MEDIA” AMAAYAH BRYANT (SLA ’23) AND PROFESSOR OF PRACTICE SAAS LEAD CLASS DISCUSSION ON THE HISTORY OF PODCASTING IN “PODCAST PRODUCTION I”
The filmmakers who tell the most poignant stories are excep tionally engaged with the world around them, not only on set, but more importantly, in everyday life. There’s no room for tunnel vision or resistance to change. They’re open to new ideas and concepts, and it’s that openness that allows them to galvanize a crew who can bring those ideas to life. As I always tell my students—you want to be saying “yes” far more than you’re saying “no” as a director.
CASEY BECK (CB): What does collaboration look like on a podcasting crew? BILLY SAAS (BS): Simply speaking, a podcast can be produced by one person with an idea, a microphone, and some digital editing software. Most mainstream podcasts, however, will consist of a larger team that resembles a traditional radio or film crew: a producer, an editor, a sound engineer, a narrator or interviewer, one or two researchers and fact checkers, and so on. I’ve had experiences with both solo and team-based projects, but I find podcasting is most rewarding when it’s collaborative—which is why I prioritize collaborative produc tion work in courses like “Introduction to Podcasting & Social Justice.”
Setting the Stage for Student Success in Digital Media
“The actors come to appreciate how they are, just a small cog in a larger piece of machinery on a film set. They also learn the patience, preparation, and focus required on a film set. They see how hard their peers are working as directors, cinematogra phers, sound ops, etc., and it inspires them to raise their game as performers.”
BS: I really enjoy producing podcasts, because producing en tails lots of planning, coordination, collaboration and, perhaps most importantly, commitment to seeing a project through to the end. My teaching practice looks a lot like my production practice insofar as I do a lot of planning and coordinating be fore the semester begins, so that I can create the best condi tions for students from the first to last day of class.
CB: How does your experience as a podcaster shape your teaching?
BS: Your turn, Casey. What does a film production crew look like? CB: I’m reminded of the great Orson Welles quote, “A writer needs a pen, an artist needs a brush, but a filmmaker needs an army.” It’s indicative of the sheer volume of people that need to come together to create a film. A traditional film crew is quite large, with many different people across the production collaborating in very different ways—thematical ly, artistically, and across content. It is of course possible to have a nimbler crew, which is something I strive for in my own work. That said, even those smaller and faster crews are working in tandem from the get-go: from conceptual inception to development and production, and then all the way through post-production and distribution. Everything I’ve worked on in the last decade has had multiple entry points and countless people working across every element.
There’s so much that works together in the real world. It’s critical for our students to experience this collaboration now, so that they can enter the job market as genuinely practiced candidates.
CB: It’s probably a good time to mention that DMP has a new and expanded curriculum that now includes podcasting, game design, and documentary film. And we encourage students to look at these new interdisciplinary pipelines, which lean heavily on our new DMP faculty but also provide many points of contact with other departments.
"‘Intro to Podcasting’ was my first experience seeing the amount of teamwork that goes into this medium, and how digital media can be used to enact social change. My favorite part of class was collaborating with Max Alvarez, which led to being featured on an episode of the Working People podcast. The stories he tells on that podcast are so captivating, and I’m forever grateful to now be one of them. I had such an amazing experience in ‘Intro to Pod casting & Social Justice’ that I decided to pur sue a coordinate major in DMP, most likely on the audio production or documentary track."
CB: Do you want to mention any specific DMP classes that you’re excited about?
When I asked how a student’s capstone was going earlier this semester, he said, “I just feel like I’m having to pitch my project over and over.” I told him that’s basically my job as a director: selling an idea to countless people to try and get someone excited about, then invested in, a project. I think it’s validating for students to hear from us that what they’re going through in their classes genuinely mirrors the work of a professional career in media.
So my experience podcasting and my experience teaching really inform each other. Both practices help me to appreciate the importance of clear communication to allow for optimal collaboration from the beginning, throughout, and to the end of the “production” process.
BS: Students and faculty are always collaborating in ways we don't even realize. One thing collaborative media production is able to do is to showcase for people, “Hey, I know how to do this!” And then to realize that it can be tremendously fun to work with other people on the same project and toward the same end, learning from one another despite being in sepa rate lanes.
CB: In today’s media landscape, no one is working in a silo. So many films are released alongside a podcast. So many podcasts come out alongside investigative articles. There’s photography, interactive websites, social media campaigns.
BS: Almost any media project today is both collaborative and multi-media!
SOPHIE HARRIS, SLA ’21
ABOVE:
PROFESSOR OF PRACTICE BECK RIGHT: SHOT BY PROFESSOR BECK, STUDENTS BRETT STEINBERG (CAMERA, SLA ’22) AND BRETT GODWIN (SOUND, SLA ’22)—BOTH MAJORING IN DMP— WORK TOGETHER TO CAPTURE A FILM SCENE IN BIG BRANCH NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE ON LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN
CB: I think what’s so interesting about DMP is that we are all practitioners, and that really, noticeably permeates every aspect of our teaching. Our instruction is very much rooted in our own experience as well as what we’re perpetually learning from our own work.
One of the ways we see this collaboration in DMP is through this trio of courses: two of ours, “Directing Actors” and “Lighting and Cinematography,” and then Theatre’s course, “Acting for Other Media” as well. These three classes work together every fall, with the directors writing or curating a short script, then casting and rehearsing with the actors, and ultimately shooting short scenes with the cinematographers.
BS: I’m having a great time in the [aforementioned] intro course, as well as in “Podcast Production I,” which is an even more hands-on lab course. The work that students are pro ducing in each of these classes has been tremendous, and I’m learning a lot from them. I was especially thrilled that students from my fall intro course were interviewed and had their work featured on the Working People podcast in February!
MC: Mapmaking has evolved significantly over the past cen tury, from compass trekking to GPS and satellite imagery, and now even more advanced technologies. However, these new technologies require expertise that can only be reached in facilities like ours, so the lab has become a place where a kind of bootstrapping of proficiency has occurred, as profes sors and students with different interests come in and learn from one another. I, myself, have learned most by working on data in the lab, conducting experiments while discussing with colleagues.
FEB: We started in 2014 with a small grant from a private donor. We were using simple satellite imagery technology— not exactly ideal for discovering archaeological sites, given those sites are all covered by forest canopy. In 2016, however, we received lidar data from a foundation in Guatemala, and things started to really pick up. Then in 2020, right at the beginning of the pandemic, we expanded the lab tremendously after receiving another large grant of almost $900,000, which we used to fund not only infrastructure, but also several positions (including my own!) and five graduate student research assistants. MC: That grant from the Hitz Foundation enabled us to establish the current modern lab, providing us the comput ing capacity to analyze and process important new spatial data—namely, lidar. Lidar technology provides a new way of gathering the same data, in a highly precise manner, over a vastly larger area. A lidar sensor is mounted on an airplane that flies over an area of interest and sends laser pulses groundward that, upon bouncing back, provide information about the ground’s distance from the sensor. Importantly, this sensor effectively showers the region with billions of light pulses, so, even if most of these points are bounced back by ground vegetation, millions of points find their way to the ground—providing an accurate map of what was previously built on the land. By looking at this data we can recognize man-made elements such as buildings, and therefore learn about where the ancient Mayans lived. The GISLAB has not only attracted physical visitors, but more recently we’ve also been able to “virtualize” it to enable even more flexible col laboration. Though we’re working with several lidar data sets throughout the world—our main focus right now is on data gathered in northern Guatemala by the Guatemalan Pacunam
TO UNCOVER THE PAST SHARING NEW TECHNOLOGY
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TULANE’S MIDDLE AMERICAN RESEARCH INSTITUTE (M.A.R.I.) STRIVES TO PROVIDE A GREATER UNDERSTANDING OF MESOAMERICA'S VIBRANT AND DIVERSE CULTURES. TO DIG DEEPER, THREE MEMBERS OF THE ANTHROPOLOGY DEPARTMENT—ABOVE, FROM LEFT, MARCELLO CANUTO, PROFESSOR AND M.A.R.I. DIRECTOR, LUKE AULD-THOMAS, PHD CANDIDATE, AND FRANCISCO ESTRADA-BELLI, RESEARCH ASSISTANT PROFESSOR—DISCUSS THE RECENT EXPANSION OF THEIR GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGY LAB (GISLAB), WHICH HAS BECOME A HUB FOR WORLDWIDE COLLABORATION IN ANTHROPOLOGICAL TECHNOLOGY ADVANCEMENT.
MARCELLO CANUTO (MC): To set us up, the Middle American Research Institute, or M.A.R.I., was founded at Tulane Univer sity in 1924 to contribute to the study of the region's indig enous cultures and civilizations. Mapmaking was one of its first offerings, laying its reputational foundation in the study of Mesoamerica. One of the institute’s earliest directors was a swashbuckling Indiana Jones-type character named Frans Blom, who conducted expeditions and recorded site locations to develop the first archaeological map of the Mayan region. Since stepping into the same role in 2009, one of my priori ties has been the continuation and expansion of our mapmak ing and spatial analysis legacy—through research funding, facility development, and program establishment. One of the many ideas discussed to these ends was the development of a GISLAB.
FRANCISCO ESTRADA-BELLI (FEB): Geographic Information Systems technology requires a lab with high-end computers, data storage for satellite imagery, and other types of special ized data. We can use it to find and analyze archaeological sites, terrain, environmental resources—essentially, every thing that has to do with ancient civilizations in Mexico and Central America.
SUMMER ’22 | 17 Foundation. The lab has become a fixture at the institute, a place where everyone comes to share and advance togeth er. It represents a point of reference, literally, for our global collaboration.
LUKE AULD-THOMAS (LAT): When I arrived as a graduate student, the idea for this collaborative GISLAB was in the preliminary stage. There was an energy and a buzz in the air about what we’d be starting, but it hadn’t yet happened. I was able to watch it take shape and then—once I knew enough about what I was doing—plug in and contribute, which was so cool. Once the infrastructure was in place, it had the active participation from the onset of people in different career stages and different realms of interest and expertise. That diversity of perspectives allowed us all to be surprised by the range of insights collectively gathered.
ESTRADA-BELLI (LEFT, WITH CANUTO, SEATED) AND AULD-THOMAS (RIGHT), DURING LECTURES
LIDAR IS A REMOTE SENSING TECHNOLOGY THAT USES LIGHT IN THE FORM OF A PULSED LASER TO MEASURE AN OBJECT’S VARIABLE DISTANCE FROM THE EARTH’S SURFACE
MC: One of the other major tasks of M.A.R.I. is education, for both our Tulane students and the public. This academic effort involves teaching not just about indigenous cultures of Mesoamerica, but also about collections management, exhibit curation, archive digitization, and so on. With respect to the GISLAB, we’ve been able to provide a pedagogical infrastruc ture for students interested in spatial analysis. We've also used our gathered data to teach students not just in anthro pology, but in other disciplines as well.
To illustrate this better, I actually just got an email from a European colleague saying, “I'm about to go into the field and want to discuss our lidar data before I go. Can you take a quick look with me on Zoom?” I'm a graduate student! But here I am, part of this expert team, getting to field questions over oceans.
MC: Just to give you an idea of how this technology has changed our field; in the last century since the institute began making maps, until basically 2016 when we got the first lidar data set, Mayan archaeology had combined, in ground surveys and maps, to roughly 700 square kilometers. This means walking through the jungle, finding each archaeological site, and putting it on a map. Since 2016, we, as part of a con sortium, have conducted a lidar survey of over 7,000 square kilometers - 10 times more than what had been surveyed using traditional methods! Eventually, this project will extend to cover more land across Mexico and Guatemala. These research efforts involve numerous people across countless countries, and we at Tulane are leading our field in this type of research, which is very exciting.
FEB: The work we've been doing with lidar has really cap tured the attention of the general public. National Geographic produced the first documentary about this research in 2018, which Marcello and I were in as consortium members. I think it was one of their highest-viewed documentaries, and so they decided to produce four more the following year. There was also recently a NOVA special on PBS that I've been working on, and one with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. All this is just to illustrate how this technology, and the scien tific fervor it has stimulated, has really fascinated so many people—especially young people and kids who may then want to get into the sciences. We think that's one of the greatest benefits of this technology, and how it elevated awareness of archaeology and science in general.
AT CENTER, A LIDAR IMAGE OF DIDIMA GOURGE, SOUTH AFRICA, CAPTURED BY SOMAYE KHAKSAR
LAT: What often happens—and this is true across disciplines and indeed across all social phenomena—is that when you get more people sharing space, a denser network of connections is formed, and new things are generated faster. Its why big cities produce such innovation—a lot of people are on top of one another in conversation. M.A.R.I. and the GISLAB play that same central role in a targeted manner for our area of re search. As we’ve become that dense network, people in other places also want to connect with it. Researchers from Europe, Latin America, and the U.S. are now approaching the network we’ve established, which benefits us all. It helps us not only generate, but also spread, new ideas and insights.
MC: Yes; demonstrating the importance of an ancient resi dential structure to non-scientists is difficult—but showing 60,000 homes in an area where you didn't think there were many people can be widely appreciated as interesting. Often collaborations begin with two or three people interested in similar things; if a watershed event occurs, that collaboration can expand, developing into something more than initially imagined. As director, I've been able to expand on the insti tute’s legacy, which is about as good as it gets as far as being an administrator, a researcher, and a professor interested in these topics. I couldn’t be happier with how it has developed over time.
ONE PART OF “BUILDING A BLACK STUDIES SCHOLARLY COMMUNITY AT TULANE AND BEYOND”—A THREEPRONGED, THREE-YEAR PILOT INITIATIVE SUPPORTED BY AN EQUITY, DIVERSITY, AND INCLUSION INITIATIVE COMMITTEE GRANT—THE BSBC AIMS TO BUILD AN INTERGENERATIONAL COMMUNITY OF DIVERSE PARTICIPANTS INCLUDING CITY HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS, UNDERGRADUATES, GRADUATE STUDENTS, FACULTY, AND STAFF FROM TULANE AND OTHER LOCAL UNIVERSITIES, AND THE LARGER NEW ORLEANS COMMUNITY TO ENGAGE WITH AFRICANA TEXTS OUTSIDE THE FORMALITY OF A CLASSROOM SETTING.
It was designed as a homebased, community service, where I wanted to present to the majority African-American children that I found in the schools books and other educational materials with positive images of themselves.
A MURAL BY BRANDON “BMIKE” ODUMS ADORNS THE COMMUNITY BOOK CENTER ON BAYOU ROAD—THE OLDEST ROAD IN NEW ORLEANS
Connects Communities
Black Studies Book Club
FROM LEFT, ANDRÉ-JOHNSON, POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR IN AFRICANA STUDIES AND BAGNERIS, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR AND DIRECTOR OF THE AFRICANA STUDIES PROGRAM
EACH SEMESTER, THE BLACK STUDIES BOOK CLUB (BSBC) CREATED BY THE AFRICANA STUDIES PROGRAM SELECTS A RECENTLY PUBLISHED TEXT THAT HAS MEANINGFULLY SHIFTED THE CONVERSATION IN THE DISCIPLINE, INVITING THE AUTHOR TO CAMPUS FOR AN EVENING PUBLIC PROGRAM FOLLOWED BY A SMALLER, MORE INTIMATE “BOOK CLUB MEETING” THE FOLLOWING DAY. FOLLOWING THEIR SPRING 2022 PROGRAM, MIA L. BAGNERIS AND CORY-ALICE ANDRÉ-JOHNSON SHARED A CONVERSATION ABOUT THE BOOK CLUB’S FIRST YEAR AND FUTURE COLLABORATIVE GOALS.
CORY-ALICE ANDRE-JOHNSON (CAAJ): Because the book club is organized around building community and conversa tion, the strength of the program is that we don’t just invite a scholar to give a closed lecture to a small group of Tulane folks, but that we try to engage the content of whatever we’re reading with the scholar from a variety of different positions in and out of Tulane and academia more broadly. This allows for more nuanced and in-depth discussions of the texts and their significance in and beyond Black studies.
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MB: Yes—and this means also engaging with the broader New Orleans community outside academia. Our partnership with the Community Book Center (CBC), a Black-owned bookstore focusing on Africana content that has served New Orleans since 1983, has also been so important to the success of BSBC’s first year. To help ensure the accessibility of the club, Africana Studies set aside a budget to provide 50-100 free copies of the selected book each semester. We decided early on to order the books through CBC specifically because we knew that owner Vera Warren-Williams and her bookstore constitute New Orleans institutions in and of themselves, and that this collaboration would help spread the word about what we were beyond traditional academic networks.
From the outset, we aimed for depth over breadth in our club partnerships, starting small by developing deep relationships with one or two primary partners and adding more over time. In its inaugural year, our primary focus has been on our relationship with the students of the Africana Studies Club at Sci High, which is directed by Derek Rankins, a Tulane alum who majored in Africana Studies and was this year’s Sci High Teacher of the Year. Since our first program last fall when we welcomed Rinaldo Walcott, author of The Long Emancipa tion: Moving Toward Black Freedom as the first BSBC Schol ar-in-Residence, Mr. Rankins and the Sci High students have been an absolutely integral part of our club success, attending the public talks and bringing infectious enthusiasm to our meeting Additionally,discussions.asmall cohort of our undergraduate majors and minors have become mentors to the high school students, meeting with them in advance of the author visits to discuss the books, and just engaging with them less formally—during lunches and pizza parties—about college life at Tulane.
CAAJ: Black Studies Book Club continues next fall with Namwali Serpell’s first novel, The Old Drift Namwali is an award-winning American and Zambian fiction writer and a Professor of English at Harvard. To keep abreast of dates and other announcements, anyone is welcome to join the BSBC listerve via our website!
CAAJ: In both the fall and spring semesters, I was really impressed with the high school students’ readings and inter pretation of the texts and the confidence with which they dis cussed the work with the authors and other members during the book club meeting. When it comes to the mentorship program, I’m always happy to see the mentors provide con crete guidance and advice about navigating everything from the choice to go to college, through admissions, financial aid, managing workloads, and picking majors, but what has been most exciting for me has been watching all the less academic oriented interaction. Just seeing the mentors and high school students connect on all kinds of everyday things makes the college part of things—more accessible.
MB: What’s up next? How can interested readers find out about future BSBC events?
CAAJ: Next year, my focus will be on expanding our collabo ration with local Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Loyola. I was able to start that a little this spring, but I would really like to grow those connections further. I’m ex cited to be able to work with scholars outside Tulane to build meaningful conversations across our institutions and among our faculty, students, and staff. Because New Orleans is home to so many institutions of higher education, we really have a unique opportunity to think with so many more folks than just those within our own campus. I’m hoping BSBC can be a way to foster this inter-institutional academic community.
MB: Through intentional collaboration—with, for example, the Africana Studies Club at New Orleans Math and Char ter High School (Sci High), other local universities, and the Community Book Center—the program simultaneously helps to position Tulane as a local hub for the Black stud ies community and, through fostering this sort of scholarly community, to make the Africana Studies Program a critical part of the pipeline encouraging Black students and other students of color to consider Tulane for their undergraduate and graduate educations.
CAAJ: CBC has really been a phenomenal partner, because the books we’re reading are often already right up their alley. When Dr. Hall was in town, for example, she also did an event there. Working with CBC is also a great opportunity for scholars to do events in New Orleans beyond Tulane, and the community has been so helpful in promoting our events beyond the university, which directly helps build our larger community.
Community Book Center owner Vera Williams MIA BAGNERIS (MB): At about quarter to six on Thursday, March 24, I walked into a crowded room in the Lavin-Bernick Center to find you, Cory-Alice, hurriedly putting out extra chairs to accommodate the audience of nearly 80 eager lis teners who showed up for the spring semester’s Black Studies Book Club (BSBC) evening program. Thrilled to see so many folks excited for the event—a conversation between Laura Rosanne Adderley, associate professor of history and affiliate faculty of the Africana Studies Program at Tulane, and Dr. Re becca Hall, author of the graphic narrative Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts—I smiled to myself and thought, “Not a bad turnout for the Thursday night before spring break!”
MB: How do you envision the future growth of Black Studies Book Club partnerships? Where else can we collaborate?
INDUSTRIES
It’s a branch within NewCorp—an overarching Seventh Ward organization—and is really at the intersection of arts, culture, the environment, and community development, with a focus on health disparities as well. Last year was such an aberra tion with everything moving online at the last minute, but now that we have our ducks in a row and are not facing the same pandemic constraints, I have really high hopes for this Departmentsummer.
VM: Laura, you just perfectly set up my next question! While not all learning experiences are necessarily the sunny-hap py-positive-euphoric type, but can still be growth opportuni ties. Could you each give an example of an experience that students have had through collaboration—a story that’s very AS SUMMER 2022 APPROACHED, WE ASKED PROFESSOR OF COMMUNICATION AND ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR ACADEMIC INITIATIVES AND CURRICULUM, VICKI MAYER, TO MODERATE A CONVERSATION BETWEEN LAURA MCKINNEY AND WILLIAM “BILL” TAYLOR ABOUT THE WAYS IN WHICH THEIR COURSES—IN ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES AND CREATIVE INDUSTRIES, RESPECTIVELY—ARE SIMILARLY BUILT AS EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES AND COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS THAT REACH BEYOND THE BOUNDARIES OF TULANE’S UPTOWN CAMPUS.
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INDUSTRIES CITY-WIDE PARTNERS Ground Summer Courses in CREATIVE &
BILL TAYLOR (BT): Things worked out so well for us this sum mer as far as timing goes. We’re entering our 10th year with the Trombone Shorty Foundation and putting together a vid eo with a highly respected professional videographer, and the whole process happens to take place during the time when my course, “Branding and Storytelling for Creative Indus tries,” is in session. So we’ll be scripting, filming, and editing the film with Troy [Andrews, aka Trombone Shorty], while also talking about the storylines and mission that go along with it. The way the project aligns is going to be so impactful for the students, because not only will there be a tangible product at the end, but they’ll also all have had a participating role in that piece.
CREATIVE ENVIRONMENTAL ENVIRONMENTAL (LEFT) THE FARMACIA WELLNESS HUB AIMS TO IMPROVE COMMUNITY HEALTH BY PROVIDING A SPACE FOR WELLNESS FOCUSED ACTIVITIES AND EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMING, (RIGHT) TROMBONE SHORTY ACADEMY STUDENTS PERFORM AT THE BLOCK PARTY PRECEDING SHORTYFEST 2022 AT TIPITINA'S
&
VICKI MAYER (VM): Summer has been a time for us to really think about depth in a way that we can’t [during the school year], both in terms of being a more intensive period for teaching, and the freedom students have of getting to go deep with something when they are not taking five, six, or seven classes at a time. Can you talk about this, in terms of develop ing your summer course partnerships and collaborations?
LAURA MCKINNEY (LM): The work we did last summer in my Environmental Studies courses was with FARMacia, a medicinal healing and learning garden in the Seventh Ward.
of Sociology Professor Chris Oliver is also going to be teaching the capstone course for us, “Environmental & Social Justice in New Orleans,” and its service-learning component. He works with Louisiana Environmental Action Network (LEAN) and recently received a grant to do some environmental justice work with them, and so his class will get to work with him on that project. It’s a really great oppor tunity, as Vicki was saying, for students to get their hands on these projects and think about these topics in a more indepth manner.
VM: Both the arts and creative entrepreneurship and environ mental studies have such specific and important context in New Orleans. Stepping back a bit, can you talk more generally about the importance of communication and collaboration— and what it means within your programs?
positive or, conversely, not so, let’s say, “joyful,” but really a growth opportunity? We love stories.
TAYLOR, FAR LEFT, AND VICKI MAYER (IN STRIPES) POSE WITH STUDENT VOLUNTEERS AT SHORTYFEST 2022
BT: The high school students we work with in the Trombone Shorty Foundation, for the most part, come from pretty challenging backgrounds. The interaction between them and Tulane students, being able to bridge those two worlds, is something I love to see. Music and culture are a great way to do this; sort of a common language that people can latch on to and speak in. We’re 10 years in now and starting to see some real success stories of students who have come through our foundation and are now out in the world doing things. One was a super shy student out of Warren Easton High School who, through some of the interactions with our students, got excited about going to Tulane. He ended up graduating from the university last year and has now gone out and started his own graphic design company. We’re actually meeting next month, bringing him to San Francisco where we work with the Aspen Insti tute, one of our funders and partners, who have invited him to be a part of an entrepreneurial fair out in the Bay area as part of their big annual gathering. When those threads start to play through over time, and you see a seed that was planted because of that communication and collaboration, it’s pretty inspiring.
VM: Laura, we want to congratulate you on the National En dowment for the Humanities Grant as well!
SUMMER ’22 | 21 MCKINNEY IS AN ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY AND PROGRAM DIRECTOR FOR ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES (EVST), WHOSE COURSES COMBINE FIELD WORK AND SERVICE-LEARNINGCOLLABORATIVEINGREATERNEWORLEANSANDTHEGULFCOAST TAYLOR TEACHES CREATIVE INDUSTRIES, AND IS THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND CO-FOUNDER OF THE TROMBONE SHORTY FOUNDATION, A NEW ORLEANS NON-PROFIT MENTORING AND INSPIRING THE CITY’S YOUTH THROUGH MUSICAL EDUCATION AND PERFORMANCE
LM: Through the National Endowment for the Humanities, we received money to plan an environmental humanities minor. At this initial phase, we’re enthusiastic about forging connec tions across campus and building coalitions with community stakeholders to plan meaningful learning opportunities for students that address environmental history, sustainability, and justice both locally and globally. I definitely want to reach out to you, Bill, to see if there are coalitions we can build. We’re super excited and would love to hear any thoughts you have on the intersection of culture and the environment, and creative industries and environmental studies.
I’ve said this a million times, but the folks who have these nonprofits become directors and founders because they have these beautiful visions of how to create community and how to serve their communities, but often can’t do that work because they’re saddled with fundraising, which is really a full-time job. Being able to supplement our work so that these organizations could focus on putting their vision in place was a pivot I didn’t anticipate, but ultimately was probably the most helpful contribution we could have made. This pivot made use of the fact that many Tulane students, and particularly the ones who enroll in additional summer courses, come from affluence. They also tend to have sup portive networks who want to help—help address health disparities, help tell a civil rights story, help show how culture interacts with these important dynamics—especially in the city of New Orleans. In the month during that class, we ultimately raised almost $5,000 for the organization we were working with, so I was really excited. I think it took a bit for the students to reorient themselves, but it was definitely a teaching moment. And it opened my mind to thinking about how we can again make use of the stu dent body and what they can offer to improve the community in New Orleans.
BT: You know, a question that has been in the back of my mind in the last few years as we start to nurture these young students is: How do we also start to bring them into an under standing of environmental challenges and issues? So I would love to have that conversation with you.
LM: After we had to reorient the whole class last summer, instead of having students on the ground and working in the garden, we switched to fundraising. That was what made sense, with students zooming in from Florida, Maryland, wherever they might be. It was a cool opportunity for them to understand the nuts and bolts of fundraising and nonprofits.
BT: What’s the award?
LM: Fabulous. I’ll put you on our list!
LM: I've been teaching service-learning classes since 2013, and hear so many students say, “This class is the first time I've left the Tulane bubble.” That is so critical to me—to know that they are getting out there—and it provides a point of entry where they become a part of this community beyond Tulane, beyond uptown. They go to the Seventh Ward, the Lower Ninth—they get to go to places and see things like environmental racism and environmental injustice happen ing, and then see what people are doing to overcome those hurdles. You can read about it all day, but when you see it, when you participate in it, it has such a larger impact.
VM: To us, one of the points of Summer Programs that’s so valuable, especially over the last couple years, is that students who have not even had the opportunity yet to get out into the city, gain an advanced awareness of how big the city is, how dynamic it is, what’s going on and what you can do. And it’s part of that direct path to staying here: not just having the on-campus undergraduate experience—but learning New Orleans.
(LEFT) STUDENTS IN AN EVST SUMMER COURSE VISIT A COMMUNITY GARDEN IN DOWNTOWN NEW ORLEANS, (RIGHT) BILL TAYLOR, AT BOTTOM, DIRECTS STAGE SETUP AT TIPITINA'S DURING SHORTYFEEST 2022
BT: If nothing else is achieved through this experience, I hope that students are developing a lifelong love affair with the city, whether or not they stay. That can only be achieved to a certain degree if you don’t get out of Tulane's bubble.
When I’ve asked students about their favorite experiences in their Environmental Studies program and classes, it’s always the events that take them outside of Tulane—to places like Cancer Alley, where they can meet people who are at the front lines of the environmental justice struggles and put fac es to names—that time and time again, students emphasize as the most meaningful, powerful experiences. It’s these ex periences that really drive home all the theories and concepts they read about in the classroom.
BT: You’ve hit the nail on the head with that one. One of the things I know happened to me as I dove into that cultural world is that I found out it’s very welcoming—it really is, and more so than it is in other places. It becomes this enriching experience, where students are not just learning, but they’re developing relationships in those communities. And that’s where the magic can really start to happen.
BT: What I love about the music, entertainment, and cultur al space as an entry point for a Tulane student to explore the broader New Orleans community is that it’s fun on the surface. Who doesn’t like being part of something that’s music related? Once you get into it, though, students are learning that there’s such depth to the music culture in New Orleans: it brings out issues of history and race, cultural preservation, and the role of education. That’s part of the reason why we have such a powerful music culture in the city. It goes back hundreds of years, and it needs to be preserved. Furthermore, the students are not only being introduced to why New Orleans is so special as a musical place, but they’re also interacting with people actually working as profession als in the industry, people making things happen. So they’re getting a real business experience—as well as cultural and historical. Pretty deep waters when you really start to dive into them.
BT: That’s where the culture comes from, right? One hundred percent, it comes from those neighborhoods.
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VM: And it’s full circle. There’s the other side of it as well, of the people of New Orleans seeing Tulane as an active collabo rator and seeing our students out in the community. So many people come to Tulane, knowing our commitment to ser vice-learning, because they want to be a part of helping these communities that are so representative of the city’s culture and identity. It’s also what makes them want to stay after graduating. So much of what is great about New Orleans is in the neighborhoods where these programs work.
LM: All of what these aspects are really getting at is that we have the ability—we have the real privilege—to immerse stu dents in diversity, so that they can see people who are differ ent from them, like Bill was saying, people who grew up here, went to public schools, survived disasters, etc. To introduce students to the beautiful, amazing, vibrant, diversity that New Orleans has to offer is such an invaluable experience. That’s what pulls at your heartstrings and that's what they fall in love with. It’s why they want to come back, and why they feel like they have a stake in it, to keep this thing going.
SUMMER ’22 | 2323 | TULANE SCHOOL OF LIBERAL ARTS MAGAZINE LEARN MORE ABOUT THESE PROGRAMS AND HOW YOU CAN GET INVOLVED MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICAN STUDIES DIGITAL MEDIA PRACTICES AFRICANA STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY CREATIVE INDUSTRIES + ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES
Meet the MENA Studies faculty whose diversity offers a wide array of coursework in this complex region’s past and present, and explore upcoming classes, events and study abroad opportunities.
Listen to a DMP student-edited podcast about the 2022 Bobby Yan Lectureship in Media and Social Change, featuring The Atlantic editor & Floodlines podcast host Vann R. Newkirk II.
Join the BSBC for upcoming series events, beginning with The Old Drift’s author Namwali Serpell, coming to Tulane for a public lecture and book club-style conversation this fall.
Keep an eye on the Summer Programs homepage for more about the courses and service-learning opportunities offered in these disciplines—and many more—each year.
Visit M.A.R.I.’s website for news from the institute and its GISLAB, access to online exhibits, and event information for the annual Tulane Maya Symposium, currently set for early 2023.
In May, Tyler Simien graduated from the School of Liberal Arts with a BA in Studio Art, concentrated in graphic design, and a minor in Strategy, Leadership and Analytics (SLAM). Before even beginning college, he started his own photogra phy & graphic design company, which he’s helmed since 2014, with clients like Mariah Carey, Pharrell and Kash Doll. In his extracurricular efforts on-campus, Tyler held Design Chair ti tles for the inaugural Tulane Student Film Festival and with Tulane University Campus Programming (TUCP), creating the brand look and feel for both entities as well as develop ing marketing collateral for their annual and monthly events. And if all that wasn’t enough, he’s also spent the last year as a freelance digital designer for Parkwood Entertainment—the Los Angeles-based management, production and entertain ment company founded in 2010 by none other than Beyoncé Knowles-Carter—and where he’ll be working full-time come fall.Tyler’s impressive work with SLAM professor Jolene Pinder on the film festival is what brought him into the fold, liter ally, for this issue of our magazine, as we sought a student artist to produce an original inner spread illustrative of all the partnerships featured in this issue. Pinder couldn’t say enough about his drive, creativity and flexible, collaborative nature. We borrowed a few minutes from Tyler’s very busy schedule to get some thoughts from the new young alum on his time at Tulane, what it was like working for Beyoncé's brand while also making grades and creative deliverables, and what’s next for him as a professional heading out into the workforce—albeit with plenty of real-world experience already under his
A YOUNG ALUM TO WATCH AT THE AGE OF ONLY 22, THE RECENT GRADUATE HAS A RESUME TO BE RECKONED WITH I so admire and respect how Tyler built such an impressive professional portfolio as an undergraduate, inclusive of both the branding and graphic design for our inaugural Tulane Student Film Festival, as well as the very exciting work he did outside of school with Parkwood Entertainment. I am eager to follow the trajectory of his career as he heads to L.A. for this next step in his professional journey.
JOLENE PINDER, SLAM FACULTY
(PREVIOUSbelt.PAGE) ARTWORK CREATED BY TYLER SIMIEN, SLA ’22, FOR THE SUMMER 2022 SCHOOL OF LIBERAL ARTS MAGAZINE
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Tyler Simien
(LEFT)
STUDENTS AND FACULTY OF THE “SPECIAL TOPICS: FILM FESTIVAL” SLAM COURSE WELCOME ATTENDEES TO THE WOLDENBERG ART CENTER FOR THE INAUGURAL TULANE STUDENT FILM FESTIVAL SCREENING ON APRIL 20, 2022 | PHOTO BY HANNAH LEVITAN
Why Tulane?
TS: Adventure out as much as you can. My freshmen year was so fulfilling because I was able to balance coursework with ex ploring everything New Orleans has to offer. From trips to the Prytania Theater for the Rocky Horror Picture Show with the JAUNT Series, to attending my first Voodoo and Jazz Fests, I think my friends and I made the most out of our time here because we were always looking for more to do. I’d also recommend joining a few Tulane organizations just to get your feet wet on campus until you find your tribe. TUCP granted me lifelong friends and taught me valuable lessons that I’ll always be grateful for!
TS: There were so many standout moments throughout my senior year, but I think our final TUCP Event: TGIO (Thank God It’s Over) was the icing on the cake. It was held on the last day of classes, and it was so bittersweet watching my peers enjoying good food and live music from Jeremy Zucker on the LBC quad one last time. We got so many compliments during and after the event, and it was so rewarding knowing that we went out with a bang. What will you miss most about Tulane once you head out to Los Angeles?
TS: I learned so much working on the marketing committee for the inaugural year of the Tulane Student Film Festival. Under Professor Pinder’s incredible lead, I got to work with like-minded students who all brought their own perspective to what the festival’s look and feel should be like. Working as a freelancer, I’m used to presenting and explaining my own vision to a client, so it was extremely refreshing working with other creative students to make something that felt true to all of us. Committees aside, it was also inspiring to see how willing we all were to step in and help out wherever we saw the need. Highlight of your senior year?
TS: I always knew I wanted to study art and design, but I wanted a minor that would open up more doors for me than an art minor alone would. My academic advisor told me all about the SLAM minor at the start of my freshman year, and I would say the ensuing combination of my courses is what made my time at Tulane so enjoyable. I loved being able to take studio art classes in the morning, and then end the day studying public relations with Professor [Anna] Whitlow or building a film festival from scratch with Professor Pinder. Perfect lead-in to our next question: What advice do you have for incoming freshmen?
How was your experience collaborating on the film festival?
TYLER SIMIEN (TS): Being from Lake Charles, Louisiana, I wanted to attend a university that was prestigious, but not too far from home. Tulane was the perfect fit, and it was in one of my favorite cities in the world! Once I toured campus, I was determined to study here. Tell me about your major/minor combination. Did you start out seeking that mix of art and management, or did some thing help get you there?
TS: I’ll absolutely miss the creative collaboration in my art classes! I got to experiment with so many new mediums and techniques under great guidance. But I’m really looking for ward to L.A., and to working in an environment that encour ages creative growth and is so influential in every space they occupy.
And New Orleans? What are you most excited to come back and visit for?
TS: New Orleans will always be my second home and I’ll absolutely be back for music festivals in the future. There are music festivals all over, but the culture here just can’t be replicated.
Research Spurred Tulane Economists by to Covid LeadsStudy
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DEAN BRIAN EDWARDS sits down with three Tulane scholars—two economists and a public health expert—who recently co-authored a study investigating the effects of Covid-19 school closures on public health outcomes, to discuss what can be gained from collaborating across disciplinary lines. Their paper received national press attention and was cited by the CDC. But Edwards was most interested in their process itself.
BE: Susan, you told me that when you were an undergrad uate, you double majored in theater and interdisciplinary science, so you’ve been thinking across disciplines for a long time. How does collaboration function in your current work?
ENGY ZIEDAN (EZ): I think being a good collaborator builds a good reputation. I love interdisciplinary work for various rea sons. For one I love science, and science comes in all forms. If you ask me, the best of science has come from collaborations. Interdisciplinary work opens your mind to new questions. But there's very little collaboration between economics and sociology, for example, even though sociology is good at com ing up with hypotheses and economics is good at empirically testing the validity of those theories.
BE: Engy, as a younger economist working to establish your reputation, what do you think about collaborating?
SUSAN HASSIG (SH): In public health, the questions we’re trying to answer are complex and multi-dimensional—es pecially when you’re dealing with interactions of systems that involve humans, animals and pathogens. There’s no one person who can encompass the high level of capacity in all those things simultaneously, and so collaboration and inter disciplinary engagement are central to public health. I would point to what we’re all experiencing with Covid as a key
BE: Your take is, in a way, a bit radical. Many have critiqued contemporary America for being hooked on the idea of indi vidual achievement— that we’re obsessed with it. How did your group manage the impulse for sole credit?
BRIAN EDWARDS (BE): I believe that collaboration is a key value of a liberal arts education. How do you think about working with other scholars in academia, which so values individual accomplishment?
ENGY ZIEDAN ASSISTANT SCHOOLDEPARTMENTPROFESSOR,OFECONOMICS,OFLIBERALARTS
SUSAN HASSIG DIRECTOR, MPH PROGRAM IN EPIDEMIOLOGY, SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH & TROPICAL MEDICINE
DOUGLAS N. HARRIS (DH): I don’t think we really asked that question. I don’t see that as a tension, necessarily, that we’re going to somehow lose credit if we collaborate, or it’s going to be seen as strange. I tend to think about problems and ques tions I want to address, and then determine what is needed to tackle that problem or answer that question. That process is what brought the three of us together on this project. We saw a problem that we wanted to address.
DH: I agree. I don’t think others necessarily think the way I do. It’s different when you don’t have tenure, because you need to think about it in terms of how you’re going to be evaluated. In the tenure process, the department needs to determine your intellectual contribution and, as an element of understanding, your contribution and future standing in the field.
DOUGLAS N. HARRIS CHAIR AND PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS, SCHOOL OF LIBERAL ARTS
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We need biologists who understand the virus. We need immunologists to figure out the best strategies to trigger our immune systems. We need experts in communication to translate that information to people, communities, states and countries that need to determine action based on sound information. For me, collaboration and interdisciplinary work is kind of the default.
BE: When you say letting go of ego, I am struck by the pres sures on undergraduates and their struggle to get into highly selective colleges such as Tulane. How do we emphasize the importance of collaboration to undergraduates, who may inherently lean towards competition?
SH: I think we really need to teach students how to collabo rate and how to create structures for accountability. I think we assume people already know how to hold others account able. It’s even more challenging at the student level because they don’t have hierarchical relationships. However, I like to focus on the end result. In some cases, even as a student, if you get a reputation for being a slacker, it spreads and nobody wants to work with you. I think it’s critical to help students understand that collaboration is the norm in almost any effort of major importance. No one can do it all by themselves, and if you don’t pull your weight, then you know that you won’t be there again.
BE: Susan, what’s the story about how you entered this proj ect?
EZ: Doug had started this initiative where the department would go for a walk every week. He knew I was working on a few Covid-19 projects. During one of these walks, he said he wanted to investigate the effects of closing schools and asked if I wanted to work on it. I was all in. I hunkered down in our spare room throughout Christmas, and we spoke on the phone daily. Six weeks later, we had a paper. In early January, our report was published.
SH: In the very early phases of the pandemic, Engy and I were trying to understand what could happen. She had some data, and so we talked about modeling it along the lines of influen za to see whether that could give us a reasonable prediction. It didn’t really pan out, but that was the first connection I had to what ultimately became this trio. I think that the defining of roles, having a shared understanding, and being able to let go of egos are important pieces in collaboration. I’m not wor ried about being a first author at this point in my career, I’m interested in being involved in something that's interesting where I can learn during the process. Learning the jargon and the language of analytic processes and approaches in econom ics and translating it into the kinds of analytic processes we do in epidemiology and biostatistics was so beneficial for me.
DH: I think the emergence of the project is interesting be cause it wouldn’t have happened without the walks. This was the beginning of Covid, so everybody was very isolated, and water cooler conversations weren’t happening, so I might have never come to the idea without walking and talking. But I think there’s a larger point here about what Covid did to collaboration. It created collaborations that wouldn't have happened, because of the obvious central problem it intro duced, but it also shut down those informal conversations that lead to collaborations.
BE: Can you tell the story of how this particular study came about?
DH: I think that’s part of what’s different about research and collaboration in our fields rather than in a classroom where everybody essentially needs equal credit and an equal-sized role and that’s the way that the grading system works. That’s frustrating to the student that ends up doing the lion’s share of the work. In the case of research, it’s very common to have a few people or just one person who is really taking the lead in the analysis and the writing. The authorship is portioned by how much time people are willing to put in, which, again, is best determined at the outset.
BE: Do you have any innovative pedagogical approaches to teaching these aspects of collaboration?
DH: I think a lot of this is about having clear expectations about each person’s role from the start. In the case of our project about opening schools, we didn’t know if it was safe. It was obvious we needed someone in education, which was me, and someone who knew health and understood the data and the structures, which was Engy. We realized this was an infectious disease that we were studying, and that we didn’t know anything about infectious disease, and so Susan joined. In this case we all understood our roles almost implicitly from the beginning. We knew our lanes but, ultimately, we were all producing one thing.
BE: What does it look like when people in collaboration are disagreeing? Is this a part of what makes collaboration spe cial, or is that a moment when collaboration fails?
EZ: Yesterday in class, I had a conversation with a student majoring in public health who said to me, “I’m struggling with my code.” I advised her to get help from an economics stu dent. So now I have two students working together, one from political science and one from public health, and while their common language is the question and the data, what they do with it is very different. I think students conversing via data is driving interdisciplinary work across campus.
BE: Is there an expectation you’ll need to compromise, or bracket your own opinions, when you’re working in tandem with other brilliant people who are coming from different disciplines?
BE: One of the most common things students will say after completing a group project is, “I did all the work!” In colle giate settings, the entire group gets an A, but one student may have carried the group. It seems to me in those scenarios that the work may have been good, but the teamwork was poor.
SH: If someone has a divergent opinion, it might be important for the collaborative group to ask, “Why is that divergence occurring?” We might need to step back and check that we’ve
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EZ: I can take a stab at this. I teach an “Introduction to Health Policy” class and an “Introduction to the Pandemic” class. We teach that epidemiology, public health, statistics, and economics are all important, and these classes are a com bination of all these components. A professor may be better at one subject, but they are absolutely going to incorporate the thoughts and ideas from other disciplines. Students listen to a variety of seminars, and in doing so they learn how to be open to how other scholars think, and respect people from other disciplines.
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DH: I can’t think of anything where we really disagreed.
This was the first study to consider the issue on a national basis. Another key advance was their focus on COVID-19-related hospitalizations. Other studies had focused on COVID cases, but Harris, Ziedan, and Has sig explained that the number of observed COVID cas es depended on the extent of COVID testing—which itself changed with school reopening. Also, the vast majority of COVID cases are asymptomatic and do not reflect negative health outcomes.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has cited their study more than once as justification for their health guidance. Recently, the CDC has also followed Tulane economists’ lead in emphasizing hos pitalizations over cases as the more pertinent factor in decision-making.
really addressed the issue that might be the basis of that di vergence. But I think ultimately in a collaborative process, you find the consensus, which might be considered a dirty word right now. You compromise on how to summarize or collectively represent the information you’ve determined.
They found that counties whose pre-opening COVID hospitalization rates were, per week, below roughly 36-44 per 100,000 people saw no negative health repercussions due to the reopening of in-per son learning. As of fall 2020, roughly 75% of the na tion’s counties were within this apparent “safe zone.”
I’ve also never read a research article that doesn’t say more work is needed in some way shape or form.
The Effects of School Reopenings on HospitalizationsCOVID-19 Study Overview
There was another project I was working on that was just scuttled because we couldn’t agree on certain things. One key thing to remember is that at each point of the conflict, there is learning. It could be that there’s initially a conflict and then you talk through it, and then you realize, “Oh, actually, I just learned something because this other person brought up something.” Then you find a common path for ward that’s illuminating and probably better than what you would have done otherwise. In some cases, you don’t really come to that agreement, but you find a way through it.
At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw a nationwide shutdown of schools that lasted, in many cases, for well over a year. What effect did this ex tended closure and societal disruption have on COVID transmission and health outcomes? Three Tulane pro fessors decided to try and find out.
DH: We pretty much did that with our paper. I think we took a few hours off, but we wrote in just six weeks!
In launching their study, Harris, Ziedan and Hassig assembled a unique data set that combined school re opening decisions and health outcomes from essen tially every county in the nation. They used the data to compare the health trajectories of districts that re opened in-person earlier in the fall of 2020, with those that remained remote.
EZ: My secret wish in life is to collaborate with co-authors in Europe, because then I could keep the paper going 24 hours a day.
For the counties where hospitalization rates were above the threshold, the results were less clear cut. For this reason, we concluded that it might be unsafe to reopen during periods of high community spread.
BE: Did any of you ever disagree in collaboration?
An interview with 2022 Academy Award-winning producer Robert Fyvolent (A&S ’84)‚ whose dynamic educational and professional pursuits brought him to this year's Best Documentary Film project and our School of Liberal Arts Distinguished Alumni Award AN UNCONVENTIONAL PATH from Passion Project to Celebrated Success (L-R) JOSEPH PATEL, AHMIR "QUESTLOVE" THOMPSON, ROBERT FYVOLENT AND DAVID DINERSTEIN, WINNERS OF THE DOCUMENTARY FEATURE AWARD, POSE IN THE PRESS ROOM DURING THE 94TH ANNUAL ACADEMY AWARDS ON MARCH 27, 2022 (PHOTO BY MIKE COPPOLA)
Replete with performance videos and voiceover from icons like Mavis Staples and Stevie Wonder, the film was also the directorial debut of Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, drummer and joint frontman for The Roots—a debut Fyvolent himself made happen along with producing partners David Dinerstein and Joseph Patel.
Filmed with a multi-camera crew by television veteran Hal Tulchin, the footage seen in Summer of Soul was shelved for decades before Fyvolent heard about it from a friend. The entertainment lawyer and former studio executive approached Tulchin in 2006, and ultimately teamed with the others to hire director Questlove and, together, produce the film. At the School of Liberal Arts diploma ceremony on May 20, 2022, Dean Brian Edwards presented Fyvolent with the Distinguished Alumni Award. Here, he sits down with Juliana Argentino, Director of Marketing & Communications, in a conversation about his path from Tulane to the Oscars.
Robert Fyvolent graduated from Tulane in 1984 with a BA in Political Science. Following law school and a career on the legal side of the film industry, he recently came to wide recognition for his role producing the documentary Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) The found-footage love letter to the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival swept the 2022 awards circuit, culminating in both the Best Documentary Oscar and Best Music Film Grammy.
“My musical education came from my experience living in New Orleans, and similarly, my academic interests—and eventually my study of the law—helped me recognize the importance of using the Harlem Cultural Festival music and footage to tell this story about lost history and the fight for civil rights.”
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Robert Fyvolent
RF: Yes, we did think about the fact that he has a nightly platform that reaches a broad audience. Not just people of the age group that would appreciate some of these artists from when they were young, but younger people who sort of bridge that gap, in a sense, and so that was another reason why we thought he was perfect for it. He was hesitant at first, given he’d never directed, but then he saw the footage, and espe cially for somebody who considers himself a music histori an—obsessed with music history—it was hard for Ahmir to turn it down. We partnered with Radical Media, literally blocks from where he was living; even though we’re based in L.A., we wanted the production based in New York. Of course, we didn’t know the pandemic would hit us in the middle of it, so that made our ability to be there for a lot of in-person parts difficult, but it also just became that it didn’t matter where anyone was. We were all just spread out, pulling this all together from our homes across the country.
JA: How so? RF: I was approached by a friend who was working on a music doc of his own, who started asking me about music clearanc es, and once I started learning about this festival in Harlem, I had to know more. I flew to New York to find Hal, who was at the time in his 80s and had all this footage that he had shot in 1969 himself—in his basement! And he had high hopes for it, originally, but then ultimately none of the networks were interested in it. There has been a lot of speculation as to why, but there are some obvious reasons; there were three major television networks at the time, and these were for the most part, African American artists. And so nobody picked it up. He held onto it and from time to time would explore doing something with it, start to transfer it to digital but then stop, or just change his mind entirely and pull back, but when I got involved with it, even though I didn't have any producing
JA: And now here we are. But it wasn’t exactly a quick or direct road to get to this point, was it?
RF: One of the roles of a producer is to build that collabora tive team, and when my client-turned-friend David (Diner stein) and I began collaborating, we quickly realized Ahmir Questlove Thompson was the right person to tell, and direct, this story. As music fans and fans of the Roots—we’d even seen them together once—getting him on board was really the start of putting this version together. We also knew that as a first-time director we needed to build a strong team around him, so we targeted a specific editor, who was also a musician, knowing that would make for a good work in collaboration with Questlove, who professionally is a musician first.
34 | TULANE SCHOOL OF LIBERAL ARTS MAGAZINE JULIANA ARGENTINO (JA): So, as a starting point for read ers, let’s say they missed the awards circuit this year and have never heard of Summer of Soul. Give me your law yer-turned-producer explanation of how you came to be a part of this music documentary and its huge success.
RF: We set out with the mindset that we were not just going to make a music concert film, we wanted it to be a movie about that era—really about the festival itself and why this footage was sort of lost, and that larger history. But the pandemic made it harder because of all the elderly people we wanted to interview who we couldn’t, due to heightened health risks. Some had participated in the festival, like Gladys Knight and
DEAN BRIAN EDWARDS PRESENTS FYVOLENT WITH THE 2022 SCHOOL OF LIBERAL ARTS DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARD
credits, I was really passionate about the material, and I man aged to convince him to let me do something.
JA: And also one of the more recognizable late-night perform ers on one of the aforementioned big three networks…
RF: 15 years! It took a long time and there were other times it came close, but I’m so thankful it never got made then. I think this version of it—with the director we had, the tim ing in the country, and even the pandemic to some extent, because I think people were hungry for a communal experi ence—came together because it was the right time and the right place. This movie delivers a joyous, cathartic music experience and I think the combination of all those things really made it what it was.
ROBERT FYVOLENT (RF): I always had an interest in working on the creative side of the industry. I graduated from South Texas College of Law but completed my legal education at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. I also spent one summer at NYU Tisch Film School, in their intensive film certificate program. So it’s safe to say I always looked at getting into the entertainment business as a lawyer, to learn and get my foothold in the business. And then it became a bigger part of my career throughout those early years via other things I did on the creative side. Years ago, I entered a screenwriting con test, and I won, which inspired me to write a movie—that did actually get made—called Untraceable, starring Diane Lane. Seeing a movie get produced was big for me, and it led to other writing jobs. From there I sold some scripts that weren’t ultimately produced, but I kept my hand on both sides of the industry and Summer of Soul was born out of my legal work, really.
JA: Definitely a unique experience. But, on the other side of that, was the fact that you were all working with found foot age helpful?
JA: Was the experience of making it as joyous and cathartic? Filmmaking is obviously a collaborative process, but what was it like to be in the driver’s seat with such precious material?
JA: Has this last year changed how you’ll split up your time between your work as a lawyer and creative or production work?
RF: I did really like my political science professors, but I had one unique professor outside of that department, someone everyone considered to be a bit unconventional—he was this older, opinionated Southern guy—and perceived as an easy grade, but he was fascinating. The class was called “Psychol ogy of Aesthetics” and it was all about how art and music impact the collective psychology of communities, and at the end we had to bring in a piece of art that we wanted the class to discuss. I brought in something I expected him to have no connection to, or to hate: a recording of “The Message” from Grandmaster Flash. I played it and everyone in the class was wondering what I was thinking, because for a while he was just not giving any reaction, but then he loved it! And it was just one of those great moments of connection and conversa tion that stayed with me. I am very sure it was the first time this professor had heard any sort of rap music and it was interesting to me that his impression, true to the class, was based purely on aesthetics and not on what anyone might have anticipated given his unfamiliarity with that art form and culture. I feel like it was a lesson about music being able to break down walls.
RF: It was truly an amazing experience. The entire journey has been a bit surreal. The movie was really a labor of love and to have it succeed the way it did was beyond anything I could have imagined. I felt the same way about coming back to Tulane to share that Commencement moment with students. I’m so grateful to the School for honoring me and allowing me to share my experience with graduates. I received a lot of positive feedback from students afterwards, and it was really a prideful moment—a validation of my studies at the school.
JA: Did it feel like a clear path from lawyer to award-winning film producer?
JA: I do think the liberal arts represent that kind of left and right brain dynamic, and that getting to move both sides for ward is what maintains both balance and interest.
RF: Sure, and a growing number of people question whether a liberal arts education is worth anything or say you’re better off learning a trade in terms of making a living. I would say I’m a big believer, as a lawyer, in critical thinking, and I think no matter what classes you take or what you study, college gives you a framework to apply critical thinking, even on a class-by-class basis, regardless of the subject and even if it’s not something that you end up pursuing. You take a sociology class, and you don’t end up working in sociology, but you still had to work through that course to understand those issues. It gave you a perspective of the world, and that will help you in some way in whatever it is you’re doing.
JA: Summer of Soul is about a music festival in Harlem, but obviously it’s hard to ignore the connection between music out of that area at that time with music coming out of New Orleans. Do you attribute your immediate need to learn more about this festival to the love of similar music you developed while in school here?
JA: Finally—you won a lot of awards this year, but we got to cap it off with your Distinguished Alumni Award and your speech at our commencement ceremony. What was it like to come back and speak to these graduates for you?
RF: People ask why I’m still practicing law because I could be producing full time, and I may end up there, but I do enjoy law. It’s harder on some levels than producing; as a lawyer, I have all kinds of ethical considerations, and I have a responsibility to other people where I need to deliver with in a set window. Whereas on the producing side, this project has been ongoing for 15 years—and I don’t have another 15 years in me for something like this. So I may slowly make that transition, and I’m about to go to work on some new projects, but for the time being, I’m still a mix of both.
JA: Tell me about a class at Tulane that made a particular impression on you.
RF: Oh absolutely. One of the most impactful moments of the film is when Mavis Staples sings with her idol—the only time it ever happened in her life—gospel star Mahalia Jackson, who had a huge presence in New Orleans and in Jazz Fest his tory. I grew up in Tampa listening to Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith and those iconic 70s bands my peer group was listening to. I had a curiosity for other kinds of music, but it wasn’t until I got to New Orleans that my real music education started, and I expanded my interest in a much broader way than I could have if I went on to the University of Florida.
SUMMER ’22 | 35 Mavis Staples, and then even people not directly associated who we knew would be good subjects but were unavailable due to the Essentially,risks.itall got much trickier, so we had to dig deeper into archives to supplement the movie with more context, which I actually think really helped the story. It’s weird to say the pandemic made the movie better but I think on some level it did, and ultimately, we got most of those interviews anyway, in some cases audio interviews instead of filmed interviews—which we incorporated as voiceovers with the archive footage.
RF: In my role with Summer of Soul, I did bring my legal background to a project where, as you can imagine, there were an unbelievable number of rights. Amir and our third producer Joseph Patel were sort of in the trenches day-to-day going through things, but we would all get on Zoom calls and talk about which segments we were going to use, where those segments are going to be, how the story was going to work and all of that. But beyond that element, I was not a handsoff producer, where I said here’s the material, when can I buy my popcorn, you know? Both David and I were very involved throughout the process even though we worked remotely in Los Angeles during the pandemic. We took a very deep approach to how we were going to sell this movie because our strategy from the beginning was nontradi tional. Our idea was to make the movie we want—without any interference—and then take it to a festival and find the best buyer. We ended up with the distributor we wanted in Disney, and we insisted that they, at a time when theaters were shut tered, commit to releasing it in theaters. I do think it helped me to have the legal and studio experience in my role here as a producer, to ensure we got the right outcome there.
GRADUATING SENIORS JAEL ELLMAN (LEFT) AND KAILA KHEIROLOMOOM TRIUMPHANTLY PROCESS OUT ONTO THE FIELD FOR THEIR SCHOOL OF LIBERAL ARTS DIPLOMA CEREMONY ON MAY 20, 2022 IN YULMAN STADIUM PHOTO BY BRUCE FRANCE MEDIA
TULANE SCHOOLUNIVERSITYOFLIBERAL ARTS 102 NEWCOMB HALL NEW ORLEANS, LA DECORATED70118GRADUATION CAPS
