Teachers College and many other higher education communities have taken up this mission, Vasudevan writes, by "organiz[ing] gatherings to provide comfort and to signal solidarity ... proffer[ing] of informational and legal resources for those in need of such services, and [creating] new sites of inquiry and action that address the many constituencies that call this campus home."

Anthropologists, she adds, "do not 'give voice to the voiceless'; we create conditions to amplify voices, to bring voices into conversation with other voices and texts across space and time," by using multiple forms of media and expression to "re-present voices as narrative accounts, visual artifacts, media, performances, curated screenings, and other forms that reflect the breadth of multimodal forms of communication and composition made increasingly possible by new digital tools and platforms. To do otherwise is to squander the opportunity to effectively leverage emerging technical capabilities for pursuing public good."

Vasudevan is Professor of Technology and Education in the Communication, Media, and Learning Technologies Design Program and Director of the Media and Social Change Lab at Teachers College. She is a co-founder and co-director, with Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz and Laura Smith, of TC's Civic Participation Project, an interdisciplinary hub for scholarship that promotes broad access of all citizens to social platforms, opportunities, and resources.

To read the complete opinion piece, click here.

Published Thursday, Oct 26, 2017