Embodied Escapism: Liberation Within Incarceration

Mass incarceration in the United States disproportionately impacts Black people, poor people, and people with serious mental illnesses. The criminalization of poverty, systemic racism, and deinstitutionalization combine to create a nation in which significantly higher numbers of individuals with serious mental illnesses are receiving treatment in jails and prisons rather than psychiatric hospitals. While mental healthcare in jails and prisons has shown improvement in recent years, limited resources and negative public sentiment continue to restrict the effectiveness of mental healthcare for incarcerated individuals. There is a profound need for embodiment and empowerment in jails and prisons, and dance/movement therapy offers one avenue for integrated care. Dance/movement therapy research in jails and prisons is limited but promising, suggesting that the modality has potential for helping individuals transcend the harsh reality of incarceration. Following the framework of early dance/movement therapist Trudi Schoop, dance/movement therapists working with incarcerated individuals may facilitate joyful self-expression through the embodiment of fantasies, dreams, and desires. The experience of incarceration is antithetical to rehabilitation, but embodied escapism makes space for feelings of freedom

Children\u27s Agency Through the Lens of a Love Ethic: The Radical Imaginary

The lack of agency available to minoritized children in the classroom is indicative of systemic racism in education. Opposing this structural issue necessitates a multi-dimensional love ethic that is capable of transcending the classroom and breaking from the history of exclusion observed in this country. This research aims to contribute to that reality by creating a foothold for the radical imaginary of what education could become. Outlining this segregation by experience across the ecological systems of a child’s life, the project begins with an examination of recent research in conjunction with current events. Then, in looking at the chrono and macrosystems, the project discusses the issue as it has developed throughout history and across policy. It concludes with research on teacher agency and a celebration of real-world classroom practices that promote childrens’ agency at school. The hope of this work is to give context to a societal issue in order to prepare our community to take the steps towards a new north star, sparking a revolutionary progression towards freedom

A Good Girl

What does an American girl look like? How do we expect her to behave? Through my story of growing up in a home of addiction to attending elite schools and trying to make a career in the media, I aim to question the people and places that shaped my dysfunction and what part I play in the whole mess of this thing called my life. This excerpt of a memoir is a critique of capitalism and an embrace of hypocrisy. It’s a story of female fear and rage. It’s the story of life turning out unlike you planned. Special appearances by: eating disorders, Stevie Nicks, and Child Protective Service

PHAROAHS AND EMBARGOS: EGYPTOMANIA SONGS AS RE-INTERPRETATIONS OF THE NEW KINGDOM IN ANGLOPHONE CULTURAL MEMORY.

Twentieth-century Anglophone waves of Egyptomania - in the second and seventh decades forms the basis for much of our cultural understanding of the New Kingdom. The songs Old King Tut and King Tut provide an examples of this aforementioned narrative surrounding the life of Tutankhamen, an eighteenth-dynasty Pharaoh.Their extremely inaccurate lyrics do more than induce eye-rolling from scholars of Ancient Egyptian history, these subversions of the truth reveal the politics behind both twentieth-century waves of Egyptomania.This essay, written for the Sarah Lawrence Programme at Wadham College, University of Oxford, examines these songs as examples of cultural attitudes towards the New Kingdom with the relevant social context.https://digitalcommons.slc.edu/undergrad_selectedworks/1015/thumbnail.jp

Exploring and Incorporating Music in the Classroom

This paper is an exploration into the benefits that incorporating music into various aspects of the classroom can bring students. Music has been a part of life and culture since the first civilizations. Each generation, the traditions, and practices are passed down to the next. Over time, music and the way we teach it have transformed. The importance that society places on music has also evolved. However, the benefits that music brings have not. Research has shown that the brain reacts to music and stimulates learning. There are several developmental and psychological impacts that music can have on the mind. Bringing that knowledge to teaching and implementing music into classrooms can immensely benefit students in a myriad of ways. There are many different ways to incorporate music into classrooms, from playing background music to creating immersive experiences. Some of the different uses for music in classrooms can be as an assistive tool, a tool for memorization, or a therapeutic tool. Music can also assist students with special needs and students, who are learning another language. Music can be used to build culturally responsive classrooms and build classroom community. The multifarious ways that music can be used to benefit students are all methods that I plan to use in my future classroom

Reframing Education and the Classroom as a Safe Space

This paper asks us to reimagine education and our classrooms as safe spaces for children. Children spend at least 1,000 hours a year in schools. They should spend those hours feeling like they have the freedom to dream, imagine, grow, take risks, and make mistakes. Furthermore, everyone deserves to be in a space that welcomes, accepts, and celebrates who they are. This means recognizing who they were, who they are, and who they can become. Children’s complex identities and humanity must be recognized in schools to come to know each child fully. When we lead with love, respect, and empathy, we create an environment with those as driving forces for learning and living together. By ensuring that education and our classrooms are safe spaces, children have the freedom to grow into their best selves, the teacher’s ultimate goal