Research Guides: NYU Reads: Theme 3: Communication, Creativity, and Connection

Communication, Creativity and Connection

Communication surrounds our world. Ultimately, communication can be interpreted as a fundamental means to connect and convey messages. When we read Klara and the Sun, how do we experience the communication between Klara and the other human characters? What about Klara's communication with the sun?

Communication can occur in different modalities such as spoken or sign languages, through gestures, and/or art. For example, Josie and Rick communicate through art when they draw caricatured characters who communicate within bubbles.

Articles

Comics and Graphic Storytelling in Technical Communication
This special issue of Technical Communication Quarterly engages comics, graphic storytelling, and creative methods of research and production in technical communication. The guest editors briefly overview intersections between comics and technical communication, then introduce the special issue’s contents and contributions to ongoing conversations in the field.
Interactive New York Times article on ASL
In light of the communication-focused theme, this New York Times article was selected to support ongoing imaginings of a variety ways to communicate and connect with each other, in addition to communicating about languages that are often marginalized (e.g. sign languages).
*Note: NYU students receive free access to the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.
It Starts at Home: Infusing Radical Empathy into Graduate Education
This article was selected in light of the NYU Reads and NYU Library guide, whereby this interview features a conversation between a library and information science educator and three archival and special collections professionals with varying levels of experience in the field. This article was also selected given the theme of connection. As the article authors state, among the goals of this frank conversation is to highlight the lived experiences of practicing archivists and educators and discuss why it is becoming increasingly important to talk about empathy, diversity, equity, and inclusion in greater context. As part of that context, the authors assert the importance to discuss the need to continuously infuse these values into graduate education, professional development, research, writing, and peer mentoring.
Rethinking science communication: reflections on what happens when science meets comic art
In this essay, the authors explore what happens when science meets comic art and how such meeting offers an opportunity to rethink science communication.

Book

The Crisis of Connection by Niobe Way, Alisha Ali, Carol Gilligan, Pedro Noguera
ISBN: 1479880175
Publication Date: 2018
The Crisis of Connection: Roots, Consequences, and Solutions makes a compelling argument that one of the main problems of the 21st century is the crisis of connection both between and within individuals. The book provides evidence of the crisis and explores its causes and consequences. Eventually, "The Crisis of Connection" suggests possible solutions to the state of disconnection that the world has found itself in, encouraging the readers to pursue common humanity.

Film and Videos

Film

Annihilation
(2014) - Feature Film. After her husband barely returns alive from a secret expedition, biologist Lena leads an anthropologist, a surveyor, a linguist, and a psychologist into a mysterious, expanding region called the Shimmer where evolution has taken a twisted turn. The all-female team must uncover the area's monstrous secrets to save Lena's husband and the world.

Videos

Art Therapy
This video explains the process and underlying ideas of art therapy.
Art Therapy Has Many Faces
This overview of art therapy's development as a modern profession begins its roots in ancient times. It features trained clinicians from around the world demonstrating the healing power of art in a variety of settings and situations. Learn how skilled art therapists help people cop with life's challenges and enhance the quality of their lives via this effective modality.
Expressive Arts Therapy: The Green Creature Within: Art and Drama in Group Psychotherapy
The story of a combined art and drama therapy group for adolescents that met weekly for two years; includes two case studies.

Workshops

August 16, 2022 (2-3pm)

Exploring Arts-based Pedagogy for Experiential Learning in NYU Reads title, Klara and the Sun

This session is for faculty or anyone intending to teach with the NYU Reads title, Klara and the Sun. Through exploring our imagination and connection to each other, this immersive arts-based workshop aims to provide methods of incorporating creative learning tools into coursework through discussing varied themes in Klara and The Sun.

Participants are encouraged to have color pencils or markers and paper (or digital equivalent) for the workshop.

This session will be held via Zoom: https://nyu.zoom.us/j/97762156426

Registration is required.

August 23, 2022 (2-3pm)

Cultivating Creativity and Connection with NYU Reads title, Klara and the Sun

Through exploring our imagination and connection to each other, this immersive arts-based workshop aims to provide methods of incorporating creative learning tools into coursework through discussing varied themes in Klara and The Sun.

Participants are encouraged to have color pencils or markers and paper (or digital equivalent) for the workshop.

This session will be held via Zoom: https://nyu.zoom.us/j/97762156426

Registration is required.

Reflections on Intersections

How do we communicate in order to connect to each other?
Whose methods of communication and language is privileged/marginalized, and how do we challenge these societal barriers?

Additional Resources:

Dismantling anti-black linguistic racism in English language arts classrooms: Toward an anti-racist black language pedagogy
In this article, the author historicizes the argument about Black Language in the classroom to contextualize the contemporary linguistic inequities that Black students experience in English Language Arts (ELA) classroom. Next, the author describes anti-black linguistic racism and interrogates the notion of academic language. Following this, the author provides an ethnographic snapshot that shows how Black students in a ninth grade English Language Arts (ELA) class perceptions of Black Languagereflected internalized anti-black linguistic racism. The author offers Anti-Racist Black Language Pedagogy as an approach that English Language Arts teachers can implement in an effort to dismantle anti-black linguistic racism and white cultural and linguistic hegemony in their classrooms using Angie Thomas' (2017) novel The Hate U Give. The author concludes with thoughts about how an Anti-Racist Black Language pedagogy can help ELA students develop useful critical capacities.
Translanguaging with Multilingual Students: Learning from Classroom Moments
Translanguaging has been conceptualized as an ideology and a pedagogy to advocate for a dynamic model of bilingualism.