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360掳 Clusters Travelled to New York, England, and Germany in Fall 2022

April 10, 2023 Sarah Theobald

Throughout the Fall 2022 semester, three 360掳 course clusters had opportunities to explore their central themes outside the classroom, traveling within the U.S. and abroad. Below are reflections from our students.


On our last day in the UK, our lovely guide Flo led us over to the Bristol Archives via the River Avon. (Photo Credit: Helen Christ)
On our last day in the UK, our lovely guide Flo led us over to the Bristol Archives via the River Avon. (Photo Credit: Helen Christ)

Helen Christ '24, our cluster liaison from Minerals, Museums, and Western Colonialism spent eight days in London and Bristol, England. 

鈥淭his course cluster has fundamentally changed the way I view museums and collections. As an archaeology major, I have been really interested in learning how museums, a space we usually view as objective, can instead be used to create and perpetuate power imbalances. Our visits to the Bristol and Sedgwick Museums introduced us to curators who were actively working to change these narratives and to bring underrepresented voices into the conversation. Back at home, we were exposed each week to new ways that geology intersects with colonialism, making it clear how interconnected our sciences are with extraction of both resources and people. This insight proved invaluable in researching an individual mine-site, and consequently working to enact those curatorial changes we learned about in our own cataloging processes.鈥

 

 


Rachael Sharp '25 from the Climate Change: Science and Politics cluster explored Freiburg and Sankt Peter, Germany.

"Although climate change is a vast and complex topic, this cluster has allowed us to break it down into manageable and straightforward pieces. We have learned an extremely important lesson鈥攃limate change not only impacts our water, the biosphere, or the weather, but communities and individuals too. To hurt and pollute the earth is to hurt and pollute ourselves. We examined case studies of both developed and developing countries who have to carry the responsibility of combating climate change. Visiting Freiburg and St. Peter was an amazing opportunity to see the way communities mitigate climate change in practice."

After completing this cluster, Rachael has decided to major in environmental studies, with a minor in health studies. Learning about how climate change impacts people and communities was incredibly motivating and impactful to them. They hope to address ways in which our health is intrinsically linked to the health of the environment in their future studies and career.

Climate Change 360 Travel Fall 2022
Hans-J枚rg Schwander, the director of Innovation Academy, taught us about Vauban, a former French and German military zone that was transformed into a sustainable neighborhood in the 1990s. It鈥檚 a mixed use area, with housing for students, dementia patients, and normal residents, as well as community spaces like restaurants, offices, shops, and parks. Most of these communal areas were designed with input from the residents themselves to create the ideal living situation meant to last! A lot of the modernization efforts were also carried out by the residents themselves without large funding鈥揳 super inspiring anecdote! (Photo Credit: Rachael Sharp)

Melanie Sung-Clarke '23 from the Taste cohort spent four days in New York City. 

鈥淔ood and taste are socially, politically, and culturally influenced and indicative of a specific time and place. For example, Chinese immigrants created chop suey as a survival tactic for bringing in business under the Chinese Exclusion Act. To this day, many non-Asian American鈥檚 conception of Chinese cuisine is reflective of Americanized Chinese food, and some still prefer this inauthentic portrayal of Chinese cuisine. Going off the idea of taste preferences, I will also take away from this 360掳 subjectivity of what is 'good' and 'bad' food. The flavor profiles or textures that I am attentive and welcoming of may be influenced by individual as well as cultural factors. And something might just not be my cup of coffee!鈥

Taste 360 Travel Fall 2022
Academy at Coffee Project NY (21-10 51st Ave, Queens, NY 11101) Oct 10, 2022. The cluster learned how to hone in on their perception of smell and taste during their coffee cupping/tasting at Coffee Project. Pictured is the Taste cluster immediately after pouring hot water into their coffee cups. (Photo Credit: Susanna Fioratta)