Trending: Fall 2018
#STEMBarbie
by Stephanie Cook (MJour'18)
Photos by Glenn Asakawa (Jour'86), header photo听courtesy of Mattel听
In the early 鈥�60s she did stints as a ballerina, a nurse and a flight attendant. By 1988 she had completed medical school and become a doctor. Twenty years later she ran for president.
For 2018, Mattel is taking on tech with Robotics Engineer Barbie, released in conjunction with the e-book Code Camp for Barbie and Friends.
鈥淟earning to code is just like learning to speak a new language, and it鈥檚 something that you can start doing right now!鈥� Casey Fiesler, an assistant professor in CMCI鈥檚 Department of Information Science, writes to young readers in the introduction.
Information Science Assistant Professor Casey Fiesler poses with various versions of STEM Barbie dolls.
Before consulting with Mattel on the e-book, Fiesler wrote about Barbie鈥檚 previous ventures into the world of STEM鈥攕cience, technology, engineering and mathematics鈥攊n two articles for Slate. The way Barbie represents STEM careers, to young girls especially, is something Fiesler wants to see Mattel get right.
鈥淚t seems like such a simple thing, but part of getting people to see themselves doing something is representation,鈥� she says.
Fiesler began writing about Mattel in 2014, after seeing screenshots of a book called Barbie: I Can Be a Computer Engineer. In the book, Barbie focuses on game design鈥攍eaving the actual engineering to two males鈥攁nd eventually gives her computer a virus. Fiesler created a remixed version in which Barbie actually acted like a competent computer engineer.
The following year, when Mattel released Game Developer Barbie, Fiesler was encouraged to see a Barbie that could actually code. Her only disappointment, she wrote in a second article, was that the company didn鈥檛 take the opportunity to partner with computing education companies.
The new e-book, created in partnership with the children鈥檚 educational programming platform Tynker, fills that gap and avoids errors Mattel made with Barbie: I Can Be a Computer Engineer.
鈥淢attel really screwed it up,鈥� Fiesler says. 鈥淏ut they took steps to make it better, and I would like to think that my critique, or critiques like mine, helped push it in that direction.鈥�
In her introduction, she writes what Barbie should have been telling young girls all along: 鈥淎nyone can learn to code.鈥�
听#HopeToNope
What began as a single piece of art a decade ago has spread across the globe in iterations ranging from 鈥渉ope鈥� to 鈥渘ope.鈥�
Shepard Fairey鈥檚 Obama Hope poster鈥攂ased on a photo by Mannie Garcia鈥攆irst appeared on bumper stickers and Facebook feeds in 2008 while Laurie Gries was a graduate student.
鈥淚ts rhetorical life had just begun,鈥� says Gries, an assistant professor in the Department of Communication and the Program of Writing and Rhetoric. 鈥淚 just thought I鈥檇 track it through the election and in that isolated context. I had no idea it would spread so broadly.鈥�
The poster went viral, with people around the world creating and sharing new versions called Obamicons. Gries developed a digital research method for tracing the circulation of such widespread images鈥攊conographic tracking鈥攚hich she introduced in her book Still Life with Rhetoric: A New Materialist Approach for Visual Rhetorics.
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鈥淵ou know how you can write a biography of someone鈥檚 life?鈥� she says. 鈥淏asically, what I did was write a rhetorical biography of the Obama Hope image鈥檚 life.鈥�
Now, Gries is examining incarnations featuring the current president.
鈥淲hat I鈥檝e been doing as of late is looking at how Trumpicons have been used to amplify Trump鈥檚 messages and, at the same time, resist them,鈥� she says.
Ultimately, Gries鈥� work stems from an interest in the lives and stories of historical artifacts, which often last far longer than鈥攁nd evolve absent of鈥攖heir human creators.
鈥淭his image would not have been able to live the life it did without, first, Mannie Garcia, and then, Shepard Fairey,鈥� she says. 鈥淏ut once it was released, it took on a life of its own that had little to do with Fairey鈥檚 original intent.鈥�
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Nathan is on tour听to promote his new book.
#InWithTheOld
Photos courtesy Nathan Schneider
Imagine a single concept that can generate bipartisan support in America鈥檚 current political climate.
Believe it or not, one professor says it exists: the cooperative movement.
Assistant Professor Nathan Schneider
鈥淚t has been supported equally by Democrats and Republicans for decades,鈥� says Nathan Schneider, an assistant professor of media studies. 鈥淔or instance, expanding employee ownership was on both the Democratic and Republican platforms in 2016. And both parties recently supported a new law to lighten the regulatory burden on credit unions, which are cooperative banks.鈥�
In his new book, Everything for Everyone: The Radical Tradition That Is Shaping the Next Economy, Schneider explores the history and future of the movement for increased public, user and employee ownership.
Activists in the movement are interested in how co-ops can revolutionize America鈥檚 economic future鈥攊mpacting ownership models for everything from newspapers to social media to the internet.
Schneider鈥檚 family history in part sparked his interest in the topic. His grandfather was president of a nationwide cooperative hardware store, and some members of his family first came to Colorado thanks to a co-op beet company that still operates today.
In a previous book鈥�Thank You, Anarchy鈥攈e followed Occupy Wall Street activists seeking greater financial equality. After the protests, they embraced the co-op model.
鈥淭hey turned to this tradition as something that could hold their values while also enabling them to work within the market,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut it鈥檚 also the tradition of my conservative grandpa.鈥�