Innovation and Impact

Spring 2024 CCCX 300 - Innovation and Impact Courses

CCCX 310: Accessible Chicago
Section 01: Reimagining Columbia Spaces
Taught by: James "Jim" Van Manen (American Sign Language)
Mondays 12:30pm-3:20pm, 600, #101

In this class, the topic of disability access provides a focus for employing a range of ideation strategies to imagine and create a future for fully accessible communities. Students will investigate barriers in site-specific situations, and create proposals and plans of action to address and remedy inaccessibility. Rather than approaching any given disability as a 'problem to solve,' the course emphasizes inclusivity of human diversity. Together, we will explore the political, social and cultural aspects of a number of disabilities as we work to create a world that is fully accessible to all. The larger goal is for students to take the lessons learned in this course, to apply to them to their own disciplines, and to be change agents for a better, more accessible world.
CCCX 316: Equitable Futures
Section 01: Environmental Equity in Chicago
Taught by: Elizabeth "Beth" Davis-Berg (Science and Mathematics)
Tuesdays 9:00am-11:50am, 618, #LL01

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.

Section 02: Internet Cultures and Open Access
Taught by: Sean Andrews (Humanities, History, and Social Sciences)
Thursdays 12:30pm-3:20pm, 33, #421

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.

Fall 2023 CCCX 300 - Innovation and Impact Courses

CCCX 314: Social Justice Creative Placemaking
Section 01
Taught by: Clayton Smith (Business and Entrepreneurship)
Fridays 9:00-11:50 am, 618, #LL01

Section 02
Taught by: Clayton Smith (Business and Entrepreneurship)
Thurdays 9:00-11:50 am, 618, #901

In this course, students will collaborate with each other to explore new futures for public spaces that focus on an equity-based, social justice theme. Examples of public spaces include parks, public venues, walk and bike ways, public buildings, and other places where people gather to share and build community. Students will research social, technical and policy issues around public space with consideration to gender, age, race, ethnicity, poverty and health. Through site visits, research and iterative design, students will learn to assess, propose, and plan a project. Students will produce a final proposal addressing social justice through an equity-based creative placemaking plan that incorporates research and input from stakeholders in the community.
CCCX 315: Media & Social Justice
Section 01
Taught by: Monique Maye (Business and Entrepreneurship)
Tuesdays 9:00-11:50 am, 618, #LL02

#marchforourlives #blacklivesmatter #metoo #climatechangeisreal are just a few examples of many social justice issues vying for the attention of the masses. Why do some rise to the top of the public consciousness while others struggle? It’s all about effective use of media, from strategy to messaging to content. Our focus will be on the strategic use of media to fight inequalities and prejudice using entrepreneurial thinking, communication skills and technology. In this Innovation and Impact course, students will learn how a community can use media to steer conversations, grab attention, deconstruct power and, ultimately, gain resources to have an equitable impact on a specific issue of social justice. Through interviews, case studies, archival research, and weekly journal entries, students will develop a baseline understanding of media outreach practices that foreground community agency. The semester-long collaborative inquiry will conclude with group presentations of strategic, equity-focused media developed in dialogue with community leaders.
CCCX 316: Equitable Futures
Section 01: Environmental Equity in Chicago
Taught by: Elizabeth Davis-Berg (Science and Mathematics)
Tuesdays 12:30-3:20 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.

Summer 2023 CCCX 300 - Innovation and Impact Courses

CCCX 310: Accessible Chicago
Section 01: Reimagining Columbia Spaces
Taught by: Diana Gorman Jamrozik (American Sign Language)
gn Language) UB 2nd five week session July 5-August 5, 2023
Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays 12:30-3:20 pm, 33, #421

In this class, the topic of disability access provides a focus for employing a range of ideation strategies to imagine and create a future for fully accessible communities. Students will investigate barriers in site-specific situations, and create proposals and plans of action to address and remedy inaccessibility. Rather than approaching any given disability as a ‘problem to solve,’ the course emphasizes inclusivity of human diversity. Together, we will explore the political, social and cultural aspects of a number of disabilities as we work to create a world that is fully accessible to all. The larger goal is for students to take the lessons learned in this course, to apply to them to their own disciplines, and to be change agents for a better, more accessible world.
CCCX 315: Media & Social Justice
Section 01: Media & Social Justice
Taught by: Robert Hanserd (Humanities, History and Social Sciences)
UA 1st five week session May 30-July 1, 2023
Mondays, Wednesdays 9:00 am-1:50 pm, HYBRID, 624, #1404

#marchforourlives #blacklivesmatter #metoo #climatechangeisreal are just a few examples of many social justice issues vying for the attention of the masses. Why do some rise to the top of the public consciousness while others struggle? It's all about effective use of media, from strategy to messaging to content. Our focus will be on the strategic use of media to fight inequalities and prejudice using entrepreneurial thinking, communication skills and technology. In this Innovation and Impact course, students will learn how a community can use media to steer conversations, grab attention, deconstruct power and, ultimately, gain resources to have an equitable impact on a specific issue of social justice. Through interviews, case studies, archival research, and weekly journal entries, students will develop a baseline understanding of media outreach practices that foreground community agency. The semester-long collaborative inquiry will conclude with group presentations of strategic, equity-focused media developed in dialogue with community leaders.
COLL 399: Advanced Topics in Creativity and Social Justice
COLL 399 Advanced Topics in Creativity and Social Justice
This interdisciplinary rotating topics course explores creative practice across the breadth of disciplines offered at Columbia College Chicago and the myriad ways in which artists engage equity-focused innovation that can drive sustained social, economic, and cultural impact. Through active engagement with artistic cultures, communities, and histories, students will collaborate in the creation of creative work and/or plan for a new social or business venture.

Section 01: Festivals in the Field
Taught by: Lauren Downing Peters (Fashion Studies)
UB 2nd five week session July 5-August 5, 2023
Wednesdays 12:00-4:30 pm & Fridays 2:30 – 7:00 pm, 618, #505

This interdisciplinary course uses the cornerstone of “Summertime Chi,” the festival, as a playground for experiencing the best of Chicago art, fashion, culture, and food, and a research site for understanding the history, politics, and sustainability of public gatherings. Through field trips to festivals such as the Square Roots Festival and Bantufest, among others, students will be fully immersed in Chicago’s diverse and dynamic communities. Seminars, workshops, and guest lessons taught by a diverse group of Columbia faculty and industry professionals will further deepen students’ understanding of the impact, good and bad, of festivals on Chicago civic life and their various entanglements with local creative and culinary economies. The course will culminate with a research festival in which students will pitch proposals for new festivals and offer creative solutions to some of the problems—social, structural, and environmental—posed by these rich but complicated community events. This course can be used for completion of Columbia Core requirements, including Innovation and Impact (INIM). Enrolled students should work with Academic Advising to determine how the class can fulfill a Core requirement toward degree completion. Any student who demonstrates financial need through a completed 2022-23 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) will be reviewed for scholarship eligibility.

Please see the Social Justice and Creativity Institute page for more information.