Social Policy Storytelling (LACS/SOCI 4066/6055) is an experiential, multidisciplinary course in which students learn how to research and communicate policy-relevant stories while working on a ‘real-world’ project. In Spring 2018 the class has partnered with the Office of Institutional Diversity (OID) of the University of Georgia.
The OID is invested in understanding how students of different socioeconomic backgrounds (as well as gender, race, or ethnic groups etc.) navigate and experience life at UGA given the University’s unique campus culture and institutional history.
The class project, “Diversity and Inclusion at UGA: Stories of Campus Life”, is intended to be complement to the ongoing efforts of the OID by focusing on the lived experience of UGA students.
Students enrolled in this course developed and carried out a series of storytelling projects that captured, among other things, how first-generation students define success for themselves, understand and navigate various campus resources and how diverse sets of students make campus spaces their own.
We hope that these projects help the OID and other stakeholders understand how students experience campus life. We believe that understanding these experiences has the possibility to shape future research, lead to innovations in institutional policy and programing, and make UGA more diverse and inclusive.
For more information contact Dr. Diana Graizbord, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Latin American and Caribbean Studies: dgraizbord@uga.edu