In this Course Spotlight from July 24, 2020, Jason Lazarus shares his History of Photography course with us in a two-part recording.

Jason is a professional photographer who teaches a variety of advanced photography courses for the Art Department and for Communications & Journalism. Students get hands-on highly technical instruction through his studio courses and, in this class, a detailed overview of the history of photography. But it is not just a history course, student participation and contribution is equally important, especially in fostering equity and diversity,   which makes this course especially engaging and relevant to students:

“This semester, I took my History of Photography course online, knowing full well that even the most recent textbook on the subject was sorely lacking in diverse voices. Because of this, I designed several discussion-focused assignments that prompted students to recognize and fill in that gap by researching artists that were ignored or glossed over in the textbook. Students were tasked to create a brief argument, discussing the accomplishments and background of the artist and why they were inspired by them. They then responded to their fellow students’ posts, encouraging, questioning and critiquing their choices. Finally, the group was tasked to vote for their favorite artists. After votes were tallied, the two highest-rated artists were then researched further by the students.  ” ~Jason Lazarus Teaching Tip on Collaborative Student Research

This collaborative approach led to a greater sense of ownership by students and increased stewardship in uplifting diverse voices largely overlooked by history.

Other great things we love about this course are the depth of discussions that students engaged in, fun timelines in some of the units and a high Ally Accessibility score. All of this is in Jason’s first online version of the course!