Opportunities for Understanding
In a polarized world, Emersonians are helping break down silos and bring people together, one conversation at a time.
faculty
What’s the Big Idea?
If you had infinite time, money, and resources, what big idea would you implement? How might it make a difference?
Editor’s Note
Emersonians are teeming with passion and ideas. This magazine is a window into just some of that creativity.
20 Questions with De-nin Lee
De-nin Lee is an art historian specializing in the history of art in China. She has taught at Emerson since 2012.
An Easier Way to Discover Books
John Rodzvilla’s Big Idea: “The Gut” (Grand Unified Theory), where every book ever published could be found and linked with every other book.
Changing Standards
Jae Williams’s Big Idea: Eliminate standardized testing in school to boost students’ confidence and encourage them to define themselves beyond a one-size-fits-all rubric.
Communicating Climate Change Through Public Art
John Craig Freeman’s Big Idea: A public art installation with an augmented reality piece to make the public aware of the devastating effects of climate change on our local environment, and show how our actions today could help reverse the course we’re on.
A Platform for Ideas and Opinions
Spencer Kimball’s Big Idea: Create a transparent, trusted worldwide opinion network to address the globe’s biggest challenges.
An Interdisciplinary Approach to Mental Health Literacy
Jessie Quintero Johnson’s Big Idea: An institute within Emerson that offers different ways of thinking about, educating about, communicating about, and advocating for the destigmatization and treatment of mental health issues.
Amplifying Black Women’s Stories, Disrupting Medical Racism
Sharifa Simon-Roberts, Mary Anne Taylor, and Naa Amponsah Dodoo’s Big Idea: Challenge status quo health practices for BIPOC communities and address the deadly consequences of medical racism in OB-GYN healthcare.
In Memoriam: Fall 2023
“Our dead are never dead to us until we have forgotten them.”
George Eliot, English author
A Journalist’s Mindset
In the last 20, 30, 50 years, the
field of journalism has undergone
myriad shifts and changes.
But one thing has remained
constant: the importance of
having a journalist’s mindset.
15 Lessons on Theatre from Maureen Shea
Maureen taught that heightened stories, lives, and circumstances are attainable through the tools of symbolism, naturalism, and poetry.
In (Banned) Books We Trust
How Emersonians are taking action
to protect free speech. One book at a time.
In Memoriam: Spring 2023
“Death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it.” Haruki Murakami