There’s nothing quite like the arts to unite diverse communities.
“Arts, Culture and Dialogue,” a course offered through the Emory College of Arts and Sciences, seeks to combine that perspective with Atlanta’s rich arts history to bring first-year students together.
The brainchild of several Emory College faculty and administrators, the course specifically encourages students’ pursuit of the arts by immersing participants in the Emory and Atlanta arts scenes, then bringing them back together for discussion.
Atlanta Symphony Hall, the Center for Puppetry Arts, Patel Plaza, Lullwater Preserve and the Atlanta Botanical Garden are just a few places where the course has taken students this spring.
Ed Lee, Emory College’s senior director of conflict management and relational logistics, co-developed the class with Kevin Karnes, divisional dean of arts, and Joanne Brzinski, former senior associate dean for undergraduate education.
“In your first [year], there’s so much that comes at you,” says Lee. “One of the things we wanted to do was create a space where first-year students could explore more of the arts and how they show up on and off our campus.” He co-instructs the course with teaching professor Kashika Singh in the Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies.
While getting to explore the city is part of the course’s appeal, not all events require travel. Many activities take place on campus, introducing students to spaces like the Mary Gray Monroe Theater and the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts.
The course is ultimately a way for students to find confidence navigating unfamiliar environments, says Karnes, who is also director of the Emory Arts office that supports creative endeavors across the university, including student works.
“If we can give an array of these experiences and provide students with a guided way to become comfortable circulating within the broader city and communities, these experiences can become tools upon which they can build,” Karnes says.
Discussing different viewpoints
Now in its second offering, the course encourages students to attend at least one art event each week of the semester, whether a poetry reading, museum visit, live performance or other arts-related activity.
Afterwards, students engage in “dialogue days” in the Few Hall kitchen, where they share a meal and discuss what they’ve seen.
“Art becomes one of the ways of connecting people across cultural divides,” Lee says. “If you have a piece of art — whether it’s music, a painting or a piece of architecture — different people will have different reads on it. Dialogue days become a neutral space for sharing those differences.”
Rose Deighton-Mohammed, an assistant teaching professor in the Institute for Liberal Arts, co-taught the course with Lee last year. She says the class is intended to reflect public humanities and community-engaged scholarship.
“We had wonderful students who showed up with curiosity to deeply understand their peers, showing thoughtful considerations of the ideas and feelings they expressed in our conversations,” Deighton-Mohammed says.
Leaving lasting impressions
Maggie Stearns, a sophomore studying political science and data science, grew up in the Atlanta area. But, she says, even as a local, the course introduced her to spaces she had never seen.
“We went to the Oxford College campus to listen to a violinist," Stearns says, reflecting on taking the course during her first year at Emory. “We went to watch a puppetry show at The Center for Puppetry Arts. My personal favorite was when we all went to see ‘Parade’ at the Fox Theatre.”
Stearns notes that the course also made the arts feel more accessible since it took care of logistics like timing and transportation.
Enrolling in the course also reignited a passion of Stearns’: musical theater. Although she took a break from drama and music lessons after high school, Stearns has taken up performing again and recently appeared in “Bright Star” with Theater Emory.
“Being in the class reminded me that there are things outside of academics and that balance is really important for me and for overall well-being,” Stearns says.
Sophomore Hope Habia, who is majoring in interdisciplinary studies, echoes that sentiment. He adds that viewing “Parade” and listening to authors speak at Charis Books and More, the oldest independent feminist bookstore in the South, allowed him to learn more about communities that he wasn’t familiar with.
“I got to learn more about a Jewish story that happened here in Atlanta and the broader historical context it was situated in,” Habia says about “Parade.”
Tvisha Jindal, a first-year studying international studies and economics, and Ananya Oli, a first-year studying political science and business, are both enrolled in the course this spring.
“The fact that the class is small helps us build more community and be more open,” Jindal says. “It allows for better conversation in class when we’re discussing art and more personal things, like how we’re feeling about our experience at Emory.”
Oli notes that the course has helped her cultivate close relationships with peers and faculty.
“You really get to know the people in your class and the professors that are teaching it,” Oli says.
Karnes adds that he hopes the course inspires students to always take an open-minded approach to learning.
“Anything we can do to get students thinking, to nurture courageous curiosity about the world we live in, and the others who inhabit this world with us, is a pretty worthy goal for our institution,” Karnes says.