2017 Undergraduate Symposium-Project Pronoun: The LGBTQIA+ Scholars Academic Residential Community Year-Long Colloquium Project

SESSION 5C
Title: Project Pronoun: The LGBTQIA+ Scholars Academic Residential Community Year-Long Colloquium Project – Spruce Room: Session 5c Thursday, May 18, 2017
   
Presenters: Josie Fields, Danny Jenkins, Charlie Keene, Haleigh Patten-Trujillo, Rachel Peri, Mathieu Wilson

Faculty Mentor: Ed Chang
   
Peer Mentor: Lexi Bergeron

Abstract:
Over the course of the 2016-17 academic year, the students of the LGBTQIA Scholars ARC collaborated on exploring, researching, developing, creating, and presenting a colloquium project. The goal of the project asked students to imagine and put into action the intersection of academics, community, and activism. The year’s colloquium project was to imagine that the class was an LGBTQIA think tank tasked with researching, developing, creating, and marketing the following:

• Develop a wearable to communicate the wearer’s gender pronoun preferences
• Wearable needs to be visible, compact, easy to understand, easy to use, attractive yet professional, with the same ease and legibility, for example, as the red ribbon is for AIDS research
• Produce and present wearable including marketing and training materials

Autumn quarter was spent on brainstorming, researching, and generating the project. Winter quarter was all about prototyping and implementing the project. Finally, in spring, the project will be finalized, written up, and promoted. This presentation of “Project Pronoun” is the culmination of the year-long process, experience, and collaboration.