Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Innovation Projects - Curriculum
2007 Anti-War Propaganda Poster - War invades a Child's dreamworld.
Drawing by Kacie Desmond
The perpetual formation of new military conflicts and
regimes of warfare, the increasing magnitude of acts of terror and counter
terror, and the growing intensity of political, ethnic, and social violence
across the globe make it critically imperative that college classrooms provide
teaching strategies that enable students to analytically engage the
contemporary realities of war and terror with a judicious and humanistic
approach.
In a multi-year project, Danielle Taana Smith and Uli Linke designed new courses, syllabi, and multi-week teaching modules to encourage student understanding of the human experiences, historical contexts, and social dimensions of violence and war. Their vision for teaching includes a mix of educational techniques based on a combination of readings, exercises, and films that allows students to arrive at an informed assessment about the ways in which cultural, ethnic, and gender differences are played out in global arenas of war and terror. The intensification of political violence worldwide makes this an increasingly important endeavor.
Building on research for course projects, students created works of art, essays, and poems as a means of creatively expressing their feelings and reflections about war and terror. Selected individual literary and artistic works are posted in an online exhibit to be shared by a larger audience.
View the project’s website Enter online exhibit - Expressing the Unthinkable — student projects