Art and Activism: Global Studies Workshop Visits the Incubator

This summer, a group of about 40 educators taking part in the annual Global Studies Outreach (GSO) Workshop came to the Global Health Education and Learning Incubator (GHELI) to explore the Incubator’s Global Health Student Gallery and Global Learning Studio. During this visit, teachers had a chance to learn about how the Incubator incorporates creativity and art-making into its educational projects and goals.

The GSO summer workshop invites educators from all over the country and beyond to come to Harvard’s Cambridge campus for a multi-day participatory experience that centers around a different theme each year. This year’s workshop took place from July 29–August 1, focusing on the theme “Imagining a Better World: Arts, Activism, and Social Justice.”

First launched in 2013, Global Studies Outreach at Harvard is a collaboration amongst regional and internationally focused centers and programs at Harvard that share a commitment to educational outreach. The primary goal of this collaboration is to help the general public, and especially K-12 and community college educators and students, better understand the complex world in which we live. The annual GSO summer workshop is sponsored by GHELI in partnership with the Asia Center, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, and the Center for African Studies.

Over the course of the 4-day event, attending educators listened to a variety of speakers and panels discussing how the arts—including painting, photography, theater, and more—can and have been used to influence both global and local issues. Attendees also participated in several group activities to share their reflections, connect with other teachers, and practice thinking critically about who is making art and what their motives for making it might be. Terry Aladjem, GHELI Senior Scholar in Residence, and Ana Cristina Sedas, GHELI’s program manager, provided support as facilitators during the conference, and with GHELI Senior Instructional Designer Elizabeth Weinbloom, demonstrated GHELI course planning techniques.

At the Incubator, we are deeply interested in how the arts and creative mediums can be used to enhance teaching and learning about global health. As part of the GSO workshop visit, Weinbloom spoke to the participants about Faculty Director Sue J. Goldie’s signature style of teaching, which incorporates drawing and sketch-notes into her lessons. Dr. Goldie herself was also able to speak to participants, giving a short overview of the Incubator’s conception and its past and current partnerships with other teachers and institutions.

After a quick introduction, workshop attendees had the chance to explore the Incubator’s student gallery, which showcases exceptional student projects from Professor Goldie’s General Education Course, GenEd 1063 World Health: Challenges and Opportunities. For their final project, students in the class were tasked with creating a “real world” product intended to tackle a global health problem of their choice.

As educators themselves, attendees were especially interested in how the assignment scaffolded on the skills students learned in class, such as data literacy, research, and health communication. GHELI intern Aimee Ramirez was able to provide valuable insight into this process as a student who completed the course and who has facilitated student workshops to help other students explore creative mediums.

Aside from touring the gallery, workshop attendees additionally had a chance to see the Incubator’s Global Learning Studio and learn how they could emulate Professor Goldie’s teaching style using a “studio-in-a-box” two-camera set up, which consists of two smartphones or tablets set up using clamps to achieve front-facing and overhead views.

“It was valuable to be able to listen to the teachers’ questions, hear their perspectives on teaching and learning, and be able to exchange ideas and visions for how art can be used in the classroom,” said GHELI staff member Tolani Ayeni, who helped as a guide and facilitator during the visit. “It was nice to have them come into the space and be inspired by the student projects and the resources we put out. That’s the core of what we do.”

Aladjem, who was also part of the committee that organized the event, developed the agenda, and arranged expert speakers, agreed. “After several days of panels and workshops on art and activism, it was great to see how the global health focus at GHELI and emphasis on visual literacy to solve problems and effect change would be especially useful to this group of educators and their students. I hope they walk away with an inspiration to try creative assignments that enlist their student’s desire to change the world for the better.”