Diversity and Equity

Prompt: IAS students develop their ability to live and work within and across diverse communities composed of multiple intersecting identities. Learning from the lived experiences, creative expressions and intellectual perspectives of historically-marginalized groups, students recognize and name historical and cultural relationships between power, knowledge, and difference. They develop the confidence and skills needed to transform unequal relations of power ethically and self-reflexively in order to foster greater equity.

What it means to me: Diversity and equity is something that is strived for in every class in IAS. From race, to gender, to sexuality, to backgrounds, to abilities, every class I’ve taken in the IAS program has touched somewhat on issues of social justice. A lot of times, these issues are masked behind entertainment and media in a way that is hard to see at first glance, but very clear upon inspection. This program, and the work I’ve done in it reflects the strive for diversity and equity in my own work through interactive media that focuses on women’s issues in a science fiction setting to papers that touch on the importance of Bollywood cinema in and outside of India:

BIS490- Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Science Fiction
Fall 2017
Interactive Media-

In this assignment, students were tasked with stretching the conventions of the Sci Fi genre by focusing on how race, gender, and sexuality can be incorporated in a respectful and accurate way. After writing a short science fiction story that touched on these themes, we created visuals to illustrate them (in my case, editing my own photos with drawn illustrations), and then culminated these works together to create an interactive text-based game that expanded on our previous ideas. The key was to make sure we were creating with an intersectional lens, so in turn, my story revolved around much research of worldwide religious mythologies to create a diverse cast of characters made up of the gods of many different cultures. Treating my piece as a comedy that made a statement, I designed a The Office-themed dramedy that focused on the everyday lives of the gods of yore, actually alien exiles from faraway galaxies, pulling the strings on Earth from the cramped setting of an office building in space. Drawing on both texts from class as well as those outside, my game followed the lives of three women of different ethnic backgrounds who work in the office of Chaos in the heavens, the idea being to show that women and POC can absolutely be primary characters in Sci Fi, and should be.

If you’d like to play the game, click here.

BIS339A-Issues in Global Cultural Studies: Bollywood Cinema
Winter 2017
Final Essay-

This final paper focused on Bollywood cinema’s influence on Indian culture, and its positive aspects such as barrier-breaking, progressive themes, and general nationalism amongst Indian people both in the country and outside of it. This entire class was about diversity and equity within Bollywood cinema, speaking about gender roles, religious and racial issues, and traditional vs progressive ideas, though my final essay touched primarily on the way Bollywood film often provides a way to challenge the notions of gender norms in fun and interesting ways that are engaging and positive for audiences. Speaking of the films Dabangg and Diwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, a cult classic and a national treasure, respectively, I take on the idea that these films provide a sort of release from everyday struggles with fanciful musical numbers and daring adventures while still challenging tough subjects like the issues of arranged marriage and hyper-masculinity in satirical ways that are easier to stomach.

The Importance of Bollywood Cinema