Thanks to creative students, dedicated faculty, and generous donors, Sarah Lawrence College is a constantly evolving hub for creative thought, collaboration, and uplifting action. These stories illustrate the power of your support.
History Matters: The Past Isn’t Past
During the 2022–23 academic year, the History Matters event series invited the Sarah Lawrence community to excavate their ideas about the past, examine them from new perspectives, and discern what a new perspective might demand. A distinguished slate of keynote speakers, such as 14th Secretary of the Smithsonian Lonnie Bunch, examined the roots of some of the most urgent issues of our day. Associate Dean Lyde Cullen Sizer, who chaired the History Matters series with History Department Chair Matthew Ellis, says, “It was heartening to see large, enthusiastic audiences for so many events, but what made the series successful was the variety of the audiences we reached and the different kinds of histories that were being told.” Below are just a few of the topics and thought leaders that came to our campus. Click here to learn more about last year’s History Matters series and this year’s event series, Being Human, which explores how societies make sense of emergent technologies. Your gifts directly support bringing thought leaders and events like these to campus.
A Conversation about Journalism, Racism, and American History: Journalist, educator, and thought leader Nikole Hannah-Jones discussed The 1619 Project, The New York Times’ groundbreaking work examining slavery’s centrality to American history and its legacy today. Watch this event
An Evening with Lonnie Bunch in Conversation with Cristle Collins Judd: Lonnie G. Bunch III, the 14th Secretary of the Smithsonian, oversees 21 museums, 21 libraries, the National Zoo, numerous research centers, and several education units and centers. Two new museums—the National Museum of the American Latino and the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum—are in development. Watch this event.
Dirty Words and Dangerous Ideas: Censorship Battles in American Culture: Past and Present Historian Brett Gary visited Sarah Lawrence for a discussion with history faculty member Matthew Ellis on the censorship strategies and spectacles that continue to rattle the nation’s legislatures, schools, and libraries. Watch this event.
Preparing for a Brave New World
Sarah Lawrence has always prepared students to respond to the challenges and opportunities presented by the world in which they live. But some might argue that the exponentially increasing pace of technological advancement makes SLC’s approach more potent—and more critical—now than ever before. With characteristic curiosity, creativity, and vision, Sarah Lawrence faculty continually engage with emerging technologies and global issues, bringing the real world into their classrooms. The classes featured here are just a sampling of the venues in which Sarah Lawrence faculty foster student readiness to engage in “a complex and rapidly evolving world.” Your contributions allow Sarah Lawrence to have the agility to continually improve our curriculum and support innovative faculty members.
Angela Ferraiolo (Visual & Studio Arts) Art from Code • New Genres: In the New Genres and Interactive Art program, students experiment with visual arts, film and media, and computer science to foster technical and digital literacy in the arts. Professor Angela Ferraiolo, who chairs the program, created “Art from Code” as a gateway into a four-course track that explores the algorithmic arts through code and mechanics. Students who have no background in computer programming learn how to code shapes and how to make them move, collide, and interact. As they progress, students encounter visual programming, artificial intelligence, gaming, robotics, experimental animation, computer arts, media design, and more.
James Marshall (Computer Science) Artificial Intelligence and Society • Bio-Inspired AI: For more than 10 years, Computer Science faculty James Marshall has taught “Bio-Inspired Artificial Intelligence.” The highly technical class provides a hands-on introduction to the algorithms and techniques that attempt to reproduce in computers the abilities of human intelligence. Students who enroll are scientists and mathematicians interested in learning what’s “under the hood” of machine learning. Since 2020, Marshall has also offered an open seminar called “Artificial Intelligence and Society.” Marshall says, “That class deals with the ethical issues surrounding AI, its implications in society, economics, politics, theatre... Rather than focusing on programming, this is a discussion-based class where we delve into current events and the far-reaching repercussions of AI.”
David Neumann (Theatre) First-Year Studies: Rigorous Action/Happy Accidents: Professor David Neumann’s course, “Rigorous Action/Happy Accidents,” is geared toward enabling students to find their artistic voices by creating solo and collaborative theatre works. After Neumann read a now-infamous New York Times article detailing the author’s unsettling conversation with ChatGPT, he asked his class if they might like to experiment with Microsoft’s AI-powered chatbot as a generative source for theatre. They responded with a resounding yes. At first, the class’s interactions with AI were hilarious and surprising. As they fine-tuned their prompts and cues, ChatGPT’s responses became more uncanny. Students’ reactions were complex, with some loving the experiment and others finding it unnerving and uncomfortable. Neumann says, “The range of student work that came out of this project was fantastic. Everyone responded with their own writing, of course, but some created songs, others incorporated choreographic elements, and we did some choral speaking. The result was something that grew out of a rigorous creative process and was very specific to this class. I was very proud of the level of work they achieved.”