What Walls Do We Build/Need/Break Down?--Our Final Presentations!

Welcome everybody! We're happy that you’ve joined us here to see what we've learned in our 360° this semester. A 360° is a cluster of interdisciplinary courses that look at one main theme. Ours is called Women in Walled Communities.
 
In The Rhetorics of Silence, we examined the many functions and meanings of silence: as a political tool, an imaginative space, and a powerful form of communicative expression--as well as the result of lack of agency and or the denial of voice.

In Learning in Institutional Spaces, we explored how the institutions of schools and prisons promote or inhibit learning. It was in this course that we looked most critically at this institution, Bryn Mawr College, and its own history of power and oppression, which sparked a lot of interest in Perry House as an embodiment of some of that history.

In Acting in Prison: Vision as Resource for Change, we explored the context and consequences of incarceration, and the systemic oppression which is so deeply entwined with the criminal “justice” system. An important component of this course was the classes we took with about 11 incarcerated women in a Philadelphia prison every Friday afternoon. Together, we created art projects as a means of exploring issues of leadership, identity and agency.

Our experiences at The Cannery have largely shaped our thinking in relation to the activist projects that you see here. These include a video about voice and privilege, exploring who speaks at Bryn Mawr and why; a fundraising project intended to raise consciousness about issues surrounding literacy, privilege and social distance, as well as money to buy books for incarcerated women; a podcast of interviews with students about Asian identity at Bryn Mawr; a video intended to make information about Perry House accessible to alumnae and the broader community; and a workshop focused on questions of race and privilege at the College. You will also find available here photographs from our final presentations, our class song, and a mock 1968 Bryn Mawr campus tour.

We hope you enjoy and learn from our work.

Photographs from the Event, by Stephanie Tran

Our 360 Song

1968 Bryn Mawr campus tour

"Standing on Walls": a film

"Books Behind Bars": an activist project

"Exploring Asian Identity on Campus": a podcast

"The Perry House Couch: Sittin' Down to Take a Stand"

"I Can't Believe We're Still Workshopping This Shit: Race and Privilege @ Bryn Mawr"