In partnership with the Cornell University Library, the office of the Vice Provost for International Affairs, and Engaged Cornell, we placed a Portal outside Olin Library for Cornell’s Fall 2018 semester.
In partnership with the Cornell University Library, the office of the Vice Provost for International Affairs, and Engaged Cornell, we placed a Portal outside Olin Library for Cornell’s Fall 2018 semester. The Portal became a hub for engagement, with groups of students, faculty, and local community members participating in Portal programming over the course of the 3-month placement. In total, over 2,400 people entered the Portal. Programming across the university was thoughtful and diverse, and included a seminar with San Pedro Sula, Honduras on identity and black speculative thought; conversations between President Martha Pollack and young computer programmers in Herat, Afghanistan on women in STEM; and a jam session between American folk musicians in Ithaca and traditional Afghan musicians at the Afghan National Institute of Music in Kabul. Cornell Library staff were active in promoting the Portal as a primary source, and worked with faculty and students across departments to position the Portal as a resource for academic research and non-academic engagement. Our gold books, in which participants leave handwritten feedback on their sessions, will be entered permanently into the Cornell University Archive.
We had a class on English lit meet with a group of English language students in Honduras for a conversation about Wakanda and black speculative thought. The two professors co-taught a seminar through the Portal.
Cornell was looking for ways to give something unique to their students while building a broader sense of belonging to the community the university resided in.
We brought a container Portal outside Olin Library for an entire semester. Led by a student group, Engaged Cornell, the Portal was positioned as a resource for both academic and non-academic engagement. It offered a diverse set of programming from black identity and the role of women in STEM to creating jam sessions between local musicians and traditional Afghan musicians at the National Institute of Music in Kabul.
Over the course of 3-months, Olin Library and the Portal became a hub for students, faculty and local community members, bringing in 2,400 people through the Portal. Not only did students become more engaged by the variety of programming, it created a focal point for the local community and the university community to interact and become closer.
Days
Cities
People
learned something new through Portals.
changed their assumptions about people different than themselves.
felt more connected to people different than them.
felt Portals changed their perspectives on global culture.