Category Archives: Arts

Hidden Figures: Women in Higher Education

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I must admit that when I first heard about Hidden Figures I doubted going to see the movie at the theater. My first thought was: mmm a movie about space and engineers… not sure if I want to go. However, when I read about the movie and learned that it was about three women that worked at NASA in the 60’s that helped send men to the moon for the first time, I started to get curious about it. I convinced my husband and a lot of friends to go and have a nice afternoon watching the other side of the coin of how NASA developed space exploration. After 2 hours and 7 minutes, a few cries and a lot of excitement and emotions, the movie ended. Most of us, including men in the group, concluded that this was one of the best or even the best movie nominated to the Oscars for best picture that we had seen.

This movie was a huge success despite being far away from the Hollywood prototype. It is not big on special effects or science fiction, it is violence free, not a romantic comedy and not lead by men (in 2016 females made up just 29% of protagonist in the top 100 films at the U.S. box office). Instead Hidden Figures uses chalkboards, old calculators, and human computers to tell us the story of three brilliant African-American women; Katherine G. Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson, who changed United States history despite the dominant racial segregation of the time.

It was wartime and the American government needed all the support to win the race to space. White mathematician women graduated from the best colleges in the country, found work at Langley Research Center and were part of the East Computers group. Their counterparts, the West Computers could not use the same bathroom, nor sit at the same table in the cafeteria during times of racial segregation. However, they helped send the man to the moon. They challenged the country’s educational statistics and gave more than 40 years of life to NASA. The strength and dedication of these women is incredible.  They lived in a United States in which only 2% of African American women studied a career and of them, 60% became teachers of primary and secondary public education. With a brutal self-esteem, they explained to their boss, a white man, that their calculations were more precise and that they could, in fact, reach the moon. What was most remarkable for me was to see these talented women devoted in helping their country protect the US political hegemony during the Cold War, despite the fact that each day of their lives, especially at work, they felt like outsiders in their own country. Regardless of this, they never gave up. On the contrary they worked even harder to get there since they knew that was their only way to achieve professional success.

The three of them had Higher Education. Katherine Johnson started College at the age of 14, she entered West Virginia State College (now West Virginia State University), a historically black college, from where she graduated with degrees in Mathematics and French at the age of 18. Later, she enrolled in a graduate math program and was the first African-American women to attend graduate school at West Virginia University. However, she quit after one year, because she became pregnant and choose to focus on her family. Mary Jackson earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and physical science from the Hampton University from Hampton, Virginia, also a historically black University. While working at NASA with the engineer Kazimierz Czarnecki, she enrolled in a night program by the University of Virginia, held at the all-white Hampton High School. After winning her petitioning to the City of Hampton to allow her to attend classes, she took graduate-level courses in math’s and physics in order to qualify to be promoted to and engineer. Once she completed the courses, she was promoted to aerospace engineer, and became NASA’s first African-American female engineer. Finally, Dorothy Vaughan graduated with a B.A. in mathematics at the age of 19 from Wilberforce University, also a historically black college.

Today we have a more even number of women and men in higher education, even in some countries like the U.S. more women than men attend university (60.1% versus 57.6% in 2015), however when talking about STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) we see low female participation. This movie is a huge incentive to get more high school students, especially women and minorities, to pursue STEM careers. Many schools took their students to see Hidden figures in order to try to boost interest in engineering and STEM careers in general, showing them that if those three women were able to do at times of race and gender discrimination, they are more than capable of succeeding at NASA or the STEM world nowadays.

There is still a lot to achieve in terms of gender equality, and the fact that it took us more than 50 years to know this story proves that gender equality is still an underlying issue and there is much room for improvement. I would like to thank Margot Lee Shetterly, the author of the book “Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race”, the book in which the movie was based. Thanks to her we were able to know this remarkable and inspiring story that serves as an example and inspiration for every woman and minority around the world, showing them that with higher education and hard work they can achieve their goals and dreams.

Press here if you would like to see the movie trailer

Source: Educational Attainment in the United Sates: 2015. By Camille L. Ryan and Kurt Bauman. March 2016. Retrieved from: https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2016/demo/p20-578.pdf

The Universality of Literature: Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

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– Angélica Creixell

Literature has the power to transport readers to different times in the history of a country. Rather than stating facts and chronological events, authors situate and educate readers about a reality through characterization, metaphors, settings and, essentially, the plot. A novel can be a form of expression for authors to subtly, or not so subtly, protest against historic periods or governmental regimes. It can enhance higher education by teaching indirectly through narratives and imagery. Such is the case of Dai Sijie.

Born on March 2, 1954, in Putian, China, he was sent to the Sichuan Providence for his re-education during Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Afterward, he sought refuge in France and became a filmmaker. Years later trying to succeed in this form of art, he found the magic and universality of literature. In “Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress,” he portrays the re-education reality of two young men, Luo, and the narrator, who are sent to the countryside to learn from illiterate farmers in a semi-autobiographic novel. Together they share the hardships of their new life and then fall in love with the same girl, a seamstress.  They also meet Four Eyes, another young man from the same town who has a secret trunk full of books of Western literature – banned by the Communist regime. It is through literature that they discover the meaning of love, new ideas and the power of imagination. In the novel, literature represents freedom as it gives faith to the characters to overcome any obstacle. It becomes their channel of education in the middle of the mountains.

The novel’s subtle criticism was enough for it to be banned by the Chinese government. When talking about this, Dai Sijie stated, “It wasn’t that I touched the Cultural Revolution … they did not accept that Western literature could change a Chinese girl. I explained that classical literature is a universal heritage, but to no avail.” This novel about literature and love is an ode to the universality of literature and education. After its worldwide success, Dai Sijie directed the movie of the book. For me, it is one of the rare cases where the movie might be better than the book. As a filmmaker, Dai converts the novel’s simple language into beautiful images and palpable nostalgia as the two young men discover themselves in literature, Balzac, and love for the same seamstress. The film ends differently from the novel, as the two young men meet again in Beijing years later, possibly after completing graduate degrees in the United States and Europe, as did Dai Sijie with his former companions after the Cultural Revolution.

Sources and reviews:

Allen, Brooke. “A Suitcase Education.” The New York Times. Sept. 16, 2001. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/16/books/a-suitcase-education.html

Riding, Alan. “Artistic Odyssey: Film to Fiction to Film.” The New York Times. July 25, 2007. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/27/movies/MoviesFeatures/artistic-odyssey-film-to-fiction-to-film.html

 

Bollywood’s 3 Idiots

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Kirti Dhingra, a journalist from Delhi tells us that India is perhaps the only country in the world where parents will decide their children’s careers for them, right after they are born.

The character of Farhan Qureshi in 3 idiots echoes this astounding cultural practice of Indian parents’ iron-fisted authority over their children’s lives, when he says in the movie: “I was born at 5:15am and at 5:16am my father said: ‘My son will be an engineer.’”

The famous and hilarious 3 idiots premiered in 2009, and it remains as one of Bollywood’s highest grossing films of all time. Here are some key facts about the film:

  • Two friends embark on a quest for a lost buddy. On this journey, they encounter a long forgotten bet, a wedding they must gatecrash, and a funeral that goes impossibly out of control.
  • As they make their way through the perilous landscape, another journey begins: their nostalgic journey through memory lane and the story of their friend—the irrepressible free spirited Ranchoddas Shamaldas Chanchad (Rancho), who touched and changed their lives during their time in college.
  • 3 idiots is a story of these men’s hostel days at the Imperial College of Engineering in India, one that swings between Rancho’s romance with the attractive medical student Pia, and his clash with an oppressive mentor, Viru Sahastrabudhhe (otherwise known as Virus).

The opening moments of the trailer begin with these words, and they reflect the pragmatic culture that pervades India, where higher education is widely recognised as a great social leveller that brings with it lasting prestige, financial power, and even a promising love life:

We all went to college to get degrees. If you don’t get a degree, you won’t get a job. Without a job, you won’t get married. The bank won’t give you a credit card, and the world won’t respect you. But [Rancho] didn’t come here for a college degree, he came just to learn.

A brief look at the trailer will immediately bring to one’s mind several potential issues of the higher education system in India. Even though engineering schools usually consist of more men than women, why could be the reason for a disproportionate number of girls in this college? Is gender inequality in ICE reflective of a larger issue of gender imbalance in universities in India?

Also, the college may be effective in equipping its students with practical skills in engineering, but how far does it develop its students’ ability to think critically? More importantly, how should a college develop a student’s ability to think independently and decide for themselves the kind of lives and careers they wish to pursue, in the context of a culturally conservative and pragmatic India?

And if all of the above hasn’t quite piqued your curiosity to find out more about the film, perhaps a purportedly pro-feminist tweet about 3 idiots from a certain Mr D Trump might challenge you to form your own opinion on the film’s presentation of gender in India’s higher education scene:

Trump’s proposal to defund the NEA: A threat to arts, culture and creativity

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On March 16th President Trump announced that he wants to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) along with the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) from the Fiscal Year 2018 budget. The NEA was established by Congress in 1965 as an independent federal agency that aims to strengthen the creative capacity of Americans, by providing them the opportunity to participate in the most diverse forms of arts and culture. But they not only fund and support art learning, the NEA also wants to deepen America’s cultural heritage and provide a more equal access to the arts across the country, making sure that all Americans have access to art no matter where they are from.

Congress will decide whether the NEA will be defunded next year or not. If they vote to eliminate the NEA from the FY 2018 budget they would not only be hurting the economy, since the arts and culture sector accounts for $742 billion or 4.2 percent of the country’s GDP and creates many jobs (4.7 millions works in the industry), but they would be also eliminating investment in America’s creativity. The NEA arts education grant program, focused on pre-k to 12th grade students, helps students develop creativity, a really valued skill for employers nowadays. It also helps them become better readers and writers through drama. For example, a student can increase reading readiness in early grades and improve reading comprehension and writing skills in middle and high school. Moreover, defunding the NEA would hurt the underrepresented and low-income communities the most since a significant percent of their grants benefits those who cannot afford the arts; 40% of NEA-supported activities take place in high-poverty neighborhoods and 36% of NEA grants go to organizations that reach underserved populations such as people with disabilities, people in institutions, and veterans. In their mission of providing equal access to arts across the country, the NEA makes sure to distribute in an equitable way their funds, reaching rural areas, inner-city and underserved communities.

Also, public funding encourages private giving. When the NEA gives money to a nonprofit organization, it gives them credibility and helps them attract more funders. In addition, the NEA’S funding has to be matched with other sources of funding so it’s an investment that can spur public-private partnerships.

In my opinion, the White House’s decision of cutting the funding for the NEA seems unreasonable. The NEA budget corresponded to only 0.004% of the 3.65 trillion federal budget in 2017 and with only 150 million a year ($0.46 per American), the NEA is able to support and boost arts and culture in the country, that translates into more jobs, creativity, better education, public-private partnerships and a social, economic and cultural positive impact in American citizens.

In what other ways does defunding NEA affect US education? This is not the first time that Republicans threaten to eliminate the NEA or other arts, humanities and cultural federal programs, do you think this time they will succeed?

Sources:

https://www.arts.gov/about-nea

https://www.arts.gov/sites/default/files/nea-quick-facts.pdf

https://www.arts.gov/sites/default/files/NEA-FAQ-march2017.pdf

https://www.arts.gov/sites/default/files/Arts_Education_fact_sheet_nov2016.pdf

http://time.com/money/4639544/trump-nea-sesame-street-budget-cut/

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/17/arts/nea-neh-trump-congress.html?_r=0

 

 

 

 

 

Artworks from famous Chinese Artist Feng Zikai (丰子恺), on the irony and frustration of the traditional Chinese education system

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Feng Zikai (1898-1975) is one of the most gifted political and artistic figures in China in the 1920s and 1930s. The 1920s was an era of deep political and social instability, a time when the future and destiny of China was blurry and uncertain.

Feng was a painter, writer, music educator, translator, calligrapher and art theorist. In fact, Feng is considered to be the founder of modern Chinese cartoon art. His essays and cartoons are still popular among the Chinese public today. Feng’s cartoons seek to furnish his viewer with a degree of critical distance. He injects irony into his paintings, so that his viewer will be prompted to take a step back and examine the social issues in China that are subtly embedded in his work.

The cartoons below reflect Feng’s critical perspective on a gamut of issues with the education system in China, which ranges from the elementary school to university level.

You can find more of his works here: https://www.pinterest.com/mymurmuring/feng-zikai/

“

Imagination”

To Feng, the job of an educator is similar to that of a gardener, who trims and prunes his plants so that they can flourish later. Feng draws his viewer’s attention to the cruel ways in which the education system in China stifles students’ minds and their ability to think for themselves. Feng suggests that the system in China is more interested to standardise students, pressuring them to conform to a certain pattern of thinking.

“Somewhat School”

Schools were part of the problem of perpetuating a vicious cycle of capitalism and standardization in learning. In this cartoon, the monkey on top of the pole is the teacher, the administrators are playing a tune, students are watching, and of course someone is collecting money.

“Somewhat Teacher”

Teachers might try to destroy students’ minds with endless drill and repetition. These teachers do not alter or update their pedagogy. Instead, they behave like a gramophone that is used to play the same old tune for years. Feng criticizes the formalist, stubborn teaching style practiced by some educators today, and he encourages them to innovate and improve themselves instead.

“Somewhat Education”

Figuratively speaking, education can be seen as a process of transforming raw materials into beautiful sculptures. In this cartoon, Feng criticises the Chinese education system that aims to kill the unique characteristic of individual, by shaping everyone using a singular template or model.

“Being educated”

This one follows the previous painting, but it is now from the perspective from the students. It does not seem fun for them to be shaped from this one model.

Questions:

Even though Mr. Feng passed away more than forty years ago, the severe problem of Chinese society and our education system persists. We still have not figured out a way to offer students with special talents another way to grow and the society still pushes young people so hard with mandatory college entrance examinations. I would like to ask your thoughts on the cartoons I posted:

  • Do you have thoughts on why China still continues to adopt such a standardised way of assessing its students?
  • How do you compare the current Chinese education system and the one Mr. Feng described in his paintings?
  • Do you see any progress or regression in China?

Korean Horror movie reflecting brutal college entrance examination

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Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9lyjyarCd8

Movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFqWC6F0Hps

 

Since last week we have been talked about Korean high school education and the studying abroad trend, I found this horror movie focusing on high school seniors preparing for the college entrance exams. It was published in 2006 by director Kim Eun-Kyung.

Story happens in a boarding high school created especially for students who have failed college entrance exams from previous year. It started with an advertisement by the principle introducing “the perfect school for study only” and close shots are around the campus. Dormitory, study room and dinning hall are newly renovated and look beautiful but lack of vitality. Everything in this high school is highly unified. Girls are dressed in uniforms with certain hairstyles and ruled by exactly same schedule of their daily activities. Girls get up early at the same time, brush their teeth in same room with same pace, do same morning exercises and eats the same breakfast during the same given period of time. Gilrs’ personal properties except textbooks and exercise booklets are collected on the first day they arrived school, because all are considered as disturbances, which could only harm their efforts for the test. We see girls lost their interests, their habits or even friendships during their preparation for test. They are taught that the only concerns should be the grade. It is not right to care about roommates or classmates because they are only competitors not companions in life.

Another storyline made me feel painful is the family of the girls. We see one girl, Kim Ri-Na, had strong desire to leave and was already mentally ill, however, her mother forced her to return and finally pushed her to the edge of her life. Family’s decision has been distorted by the stressful reality of education in Korean society.

“Do you wish to continue to be a loser?” Their mentor, a young cold-blood woman, repeated this sentence more than ten times in the movie. Originally from China, it is not difficult for me to imagine this story happening in the real world. Traditional admission culture and education system in Korea and China made college entrance examination a huge deal and had tremendous pressures and negative psychological effects on teenagers and their families. Failing the test equals to failing your first eighteen years of life. But truly, is it fair to define someone a “loser” based on test score? Is it valid to measure how well one learns in six years based on several pieces of test papers?

What do you think about the college admission requirement and process in Korea? Is a fatal examination enough to evaluate the education outcome? Does the examination well prepare students for higher education? Does it result more harm or more benefit? For broader picture, Do you prefer Korean way or American way of college admission? Why do you think this system has been effective in Korea and China for decades?

This movie is also known as “D-day” when it published in Korea and China. D-day usually refers to June 6,1994, which American army fought to win or die. It makes a lot of sense: A examination for win or die.

The Usefulness of Film Studies and Analysis in a Higher Education Institution

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Hello, today, I am writing about a filmmaker, Beeban Kidron.

Beeban Kidron is a British filmmaker, best known for directing Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004). She has also produced documentaries, especially about troubling social issues, as seen in Hookers, Hustlers, Pimps and their Johns (1993) and Sex, Death and the Gods (2011), a film about “devadasi,” or Indian “sacred prostitutes”. Most important of all, Kidron founded FILMCLUB, a charity organisation that allows schools to screen films at no cost, and to discuss and review these films for educational purposes. FILMCLUB uses film as a pedagogical tool for students to explore ideas of community, society and culture. Kidron believes that film has the power to improve millennial students’ learning ability in diverse ways — viscerally, emotionally and intellectually.

In my opinion, the fundamental strength of Kidron’s project lies in her belief that film offers a chance for us to engage in a communal learning experience which we all need in this increasingly divided world. Film momentarily unites an audience through a shared process of watching and learning about other worlds and cultures. Even though films are produced in a variety of languages, it has a unique ability to elicit empathy in the viewer. These features are especially relevant for the younger generation, where movies enlarge their worldviews, heighten their understanding of who they are, and help them make sense of the world. Kidron said: “People have a right to have their lives witnessed. If we coexist with the systems that abuse people, then we have a duty to understand it.”

Kidron’s message made me think about the effectiveness of using film to promote a more international culture in higher education institutions. I think it will be very helpful for an international university like Columbia, which can do a lot more to create opportunities for minority representation and cultural interaction among students. Similar to Angelica’s blog post on “Chimamanda’s Danger of a Single Story”, I think it is important to expose students to a range of cultural narratives and stories. Film is perhaps the best way to promoting and publicising unity across cultural differences because it is financially low in cost (anyone with an iPhone can start filming) and is easily disseminated.

What do you think? As a SIPA student, I also want to question how much you feel belonged to Columbia? Do you feel that the school can do more to foster a communal or international identity among students?

 

Here is the link to her TED talk:

Chimamanda’s Danger of a Single Story

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“When we reject the single story. When we realize that there is never a single story about any place. We regain a kind of paradise.”                  – Chimananda Ngozi Adichie

This is the last phrase of Chimamanda Adichie’s excellent TED talk about the danger of a single story. Although the TED talk was given in 2009, its message, specially about immigrants, is stronger today.  Chimamanda, a Nigerian author, encourages us to avoid single stories (having one single perspective or narrative of a person, community or country) and learn about our peers thoroughly and holistically. She grew up near higher education institutions because her parents were faculty at the University of Nigeria in Nsukka, and continued to be close to universities throughout her education. She began her undergrad in Drexel University, then transferred to Eastern Connecticut State University. She did her master’s degree at John Hopkins University, followed by a second masters from Yale University. Additionally, she was awarded fellowships from both Princeton and Harvard Universities.

Higher education is present in her novels as well. Her characters range from academics in the heart of planning revolutions, to Nigerian immigrants facing the challenges of American higher education, both as students and as immigrants. Through her storytelling, the readers are given another perspective of what it means to study in the United States and what international students face when entering a new academic system while getting used to a different culture. In between lines, she highlights the importance of diversity in universities and how international students enhance the educational experience.

Universities are spaces where the danger of a single story can be eliminated. As Chimamanda’s experience meeting her undergrad roommate who had a single story about Africans, cultural and friendship exchanges can help bridge cultural perceptions and share knowledge.  After reading her novels, being an international student myself and coming from a Mexican University with only 5% international students, I question: How can diversity of students and nationalities be encouraged in universities? What type of activities can students and faculty do to avoid the danger of a single story? What are other advantages of having international students in higher education institutions?

Here is the link to the TED talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story

Novels by Chimamanda N. Adichie:

Half of a Yellow Sun, Purple Hibiscus, Americanah

 

 

Art, Racism, and Higher Education

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Hello, all!

My name is Gayoung Kim and I am in the art group. While googling, Timothy and I found an interesting dance performance to share with everybody. It is called, Octavia’s Brood: Riding the Ox Home, performed by an anti-racist choreographer, Meghan Abadoo. She, as a black woman dance performer, tries to reveal the identity of black womanhood (It is all performed by black female dancers) and to create a space for freely sharing the vulnerability of black women with the witnesses who watch the performance. Throughout the performance, one movement captured my sight really strongly when the performers try to run forward but they keep failing because of cloth tying their bodies to the walls from 26’-33’. (The whole performance is 46 minutes, but I think this part is the highlight.) The dancers keep trying to reach forward but they tumble and fall, and I felt like that is the reality of racism and gender discrimination.

Meghan Abadoo also wrote a short essay about the subtle systematic injustice in society and how University of Maryland tries to deal with it. She points out that it is a widely held misconception that racial inequality does not exist anymore because race-based discrimination is illegal and shares the moment when she participated the Words of Engagement intergroup dialogue program at University of Maryland. There, she had profound experience gathering with people of different racial backgrounds, listening divergent viewpoints and stories.

Personally, as an Asian female student, I have not experienced specific occasion, but her words made me think about how race and gender are still the issue to resolve and how those are under-estimated as a problem. I think this performance is a worth while piece to watch.

You can watch the performance here:
http://drum.lib.umd.edu/handle/1903/18432
And her essay, you can read it here:
http://terp.umd.edu/sights-unseen-2/#Abadoo

And here some inviting questions to think for you all;

  • Do you think racial or gender discrimination is still prevalent in US higher education institutions today?
  • What do you think are the merits and limitations of Abadoo’s project of using dance as a medium to champion notions of racial and gender equality in HE institutions? 
  • Are you able to think of any other ways for HE institutions to leverage their academic and cultural influence to advocate social causes in the world? How might these ways or approaches differ in an Asian HE context?