Recast | Faculty graduation speaker vote results

From: “Williamson, Elizabeth” <williame@evergreen.edu>
Date: Thursday, May 6, 2021 at 9:57 AM

Dear colleagues,

I’m happy to announce the results of the vote for faculty graduation speaker. The majority of the votes were cast for Laurie and Ruth’s proposal (see below) and they have graciously agreed to honor students in a creative, innovative way. 

Please join me in thanking Ruth, Laurie, and all the faculty members who were willing to take on this difficult task (Dawn, Zoltán, Eirik). I look forward to celebrating our graduates with all of you!

Respectfully, 

 Elizabeth

In the spirit of team teaching, Ruth Hayes and Laurie Meeker propose to collaborate on a joint faculty graduation speech, addressing the critical importance of representation in creating a more just and equitable society. As 20th century painter Paul Klee suggested, the arts, and artists, teach us how to see. They can represent for us what’s outside of our own bubbles, and where to look for alternative ways forward.

The remote zoom environment gives us the chance to pre-record our commentary and, as media faculty, we feel compelled to include images. While our talking heads will appear at times, we will also incorporate a collage of quickly changing images showing themes explored through team-teaching Mediaworks this year and expanded to include interdisciplinary approaches to problem solving. Students in our program learned that a lack of representation is annihilation. They read and viewed works about the racist treatment of Black people and Asian and Pacific Islanders, the objectification of women in mainstream media, discrimination against LGTBQ+ members of our communities, environmental injustices against communities of color, the massive accumulation of e-waste from all our digital devices, and the overall degradation of our environment, including catastrophes resulting from climate change. With our students permission, we will include short clips from the experimental, animated, documentary, and essayistic works they’ve created in response to these themes as we address them in our commentary. 

—
Elizabeth Williamson, Ph.D.
(pronouns: she/her)
Curriculum and Faculty Hiring Dean
Library 2003
The Evergreen State College  |  Olympia, WA  98505

 
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