Lise's Lens: October 19, 2023

This week I am getting ready for my Mod 3 class on Haiti, reading about how distribution rights work in the film industry, and listening intently to what those impacted by the Israel/Gaza crisis have to say. 

WHAT I’M READING
 
  • I am co-teaching a course on Haiti next mod — “Haiti: An Exploration of the History, Language, and Literature of Revolution and Freedom” — so I have been busy reading relevant material in preparation for that (more on this below!). However, when reading up on highly academic topics, I feel it can be helpful to take periodic breaks and explore other subject areas. I recently read an article about the film industry and the way distribution rights and profit sharing works for movies. Of course, much of this has come up as a result of Taylor Swift’s new Eras Tour film. And stay tuned, because Beyonce’s movie is coming out in about a month. 
 
WHAT I’M THINKING/TALKING ABOUT
 
  • Can you believe that we are already in Mod 2? What this means for me is that I am officially in countdown mode until Mod 3 when I will be teaching a course on Haiti with Jeannette and Louis. The idea for the course germinated months ago, and we have gone back and forth on our scope (after all, this is a six-week intensive) and on our methodology. Yesterday, during one of our weekly meetings about the course, we were working to finalize overarching questions for the course. At the end of the hour, I expressed what great joy it gave me to be able to collaborate with colleagues in this way. I love the back and forth and intellectual debate that comes from working as a group. But the biggest reward is seeing how the students end up experiencing and interfacing with the material. I’m really looking forward to it.

WHAT I'M WATCHING/LISTENING TO
 
  • As I continue to contemplate the conflict in Israel and Gaza, I have been trying to glean wisdom and perspective from others — specifically in search of ways we can get ourselves into a better, more hopeful place than we are now. I learned a lot from watching Israeli writer Yuval Noah Harari on CNN Amanpour, and this video, in which the family of Wadea Al-Fayoume, the young Palestinian-American boy who was tragically murdered last week, shared words of wisdom. 
 
WHAT CAUGHT MY EYE
 
Visual Arts Faculty Alison Safford sent me this photo of a Wearable Arts dress that was dyed using indigo and amaranth from the CSW garden! Isn’t it beautiful? I am so so excited by the possibilities of these dyes, which have been thriving in our garden!
 
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