Category: Data Stories

cfrancis blackchild is a Bucknell theatre professor who “directs, performs, teaches, and writes for and about theatre”, according to her personal website. In her theatre work and scholarship, blackchild focuses on the social functions and impacts of theatre. She has a focus in her practice on Theatre and Social Change and Theatre of the Oppressed, specifically using interactive performance in the Forum Theatre Technique. Through a course in the fall, blackchild is bringing Forum Theatre to Bucknell, to be presented in “Can We Talk About It?”, performed in Tustin Theatre Feb. 17, 18, and 19.

In the fall, blackchild taught THEA390, Applied & Interactive Theatre, a Community-Engaged Learning course in which “students develop an interactive performance centered on social issues of the students choosing.” blackchild sought to have students engage with the Bucknell community by conducting research and analyzing the campus from a different perspective. Ultimately, the goal of the course was for students to create an informed and well-researched script that presents a problem to the community and allows the audience to move forward with the issue being addressed.

Dr. Chris Boyatzis is a professor of Psychology who focuses on Children’s and Developmental Psychology. At Bucknell, Boyatzis teaches two Community-Engaged Learning Courses: PSYC207- Developmental Psychology and PSYC320- Children’s Studies. Outside of his coursework, Boyatzis is a large proponent of civic engagement through his directorship of the Bucknell in Denmark summer program and his connection of students with Camp Koala: a camp for children experiencing death or grief. 

PSYC320 is a Psychology seminar in which students choose from a list of community partners for field placements where they are able to work hands-on directly with children, including Geisinger, Clear Vision Residential Services, and Ashler Manor. While the field component is critically important to the course, reflection is also a large component of the experience and the learning process, which is done through journaling. Boyatzis will also ask students to email him an anecdote from the week that he will then discuss with the class. In their final paper, students are asked to incorporate their own experiences from their field placements and put things in a new perspective now that they have been through the whole course.