Section 01: Cultivating Food Equity
Taught by: Dana Connell (Fashion Studies)
Thursdays 9:00-11:50 am, Web
Have you heard the phrase, “eating from the rainbow?” Nutrition experts say, the more colorful the food on your plate, the more nutrients in each meal. Loading up a plate with colorful foods isn’t always easy for many in Chicago and other urban areas who don’t have access to well-stocked, affordable, and accessible grocery stores. In this Innovation and Impact class, students will research a variety of food sources in Chicago and imagine how to cultivate a more equitable food supply chain in an urban market. Through site visits, research, interviews, and real-life role play, students will better understand the underlying causes of food deserts that impact health and wellness. What would food equity look like in the future for an urban city like Chicago? Students will deliver a solution-oriented final project that may address physical grocery needs, opportunities to grow food, programs to educate, or any other possible solution that addresses a root cause.
Section 02: Internet Cultures & Open Access
Taught by: Sean Andrews (Humanities, History, and Social Sciences)
Wednesdays 12:30-3:20 pm, 618, #LL02
This course will consider the tensions and overlaps between open access and contemporary capitalist property regimes and the way digital platforms have allowed for greater access to the creation, distribution and consumption of culture. Looking at the social and technological innovations that have allowed the open web to flourish, the class will evaluate the impact cultures of open access and online collaboration have had on global information inequality. Students will also consider this impact as they create an innovative and collaborative development of open access resources.
Section 03: Environmental Equity in Chicago
Taught by: Elizabeth Davis-Berg (Science and Mathematics)
Tuesdays 3:30-6:20 pm, 618, #LL02
Chicago is a city of diverse neighborhoods and communities. Some of these neighborhoods and communities have brownfields, air pollution, and incinerators but others do not. How have and do structural policies like zoning laws, decisions of the city council, and other factors contribute to the types and location of environmental issues in the city? Can we understand the impact of these environmental issues directly or indirectly on the lives of people in these communities? In this Innovation and Impact course, students will use methods including site visits, research, interviews, and more to better understand some of the environmental inequities in our region. Students will research a variety of polluted sites and related environmental issues to explore issues of environmental inequity and to design approaches that address this inequity. Students will deliver a final project that proposes an approach on how to improve, educate, remediate, or advocate for a method that would support community members in addressing environmental issues. Examples of environmental issues may include brownfields, air pollution, incinerators, and other planned developments on current green spaces.