Art students team up with philosophy and religion students to foster dialogue about diversity

East Stroudsburg University produced the second installation of The Inclusion Poster Project, a student exhibit aimed at fostering dialogue about how the university’s scholarly community can promote inclusion and diversity.

An open forum to discuss the project will be held on Tuesday, Jan. 28, at 6:30 p.m. in the Smith McFarland Theatre of the university’s Fine and Performing Arts Center, Normal and Marguerite streets, East Stroudsburg.

The exhibit includes the works of 18 art + design students who were paired with 20 students from a section of philosophy that’s focused on race, gender, and culture. Their views are expressed through the posters they created. Professors David Mazure (art + design) and T. Storm Heter (modern languages, philosophy, and religion) led this cross-disciplinary collaboration.

“This project is incredible," said Joanne Z. Bruno, J.D., ESU’s provost and vice president for academic affairs. “I’m thrilled to see it’s back on our campus. The work done by these faculty members and their students is commendable. They have given a voice to those who are passionate about things taking place in society today – on our campus and elsewhere.”

A prepared purpose statement about the project states that the initiative is "consistent with ESU’s values of intellectual integrity, freedom of expression, good citizenship, and accountability."

Students studied inclusion as a concept in academic literature.

“We are the most diverse universities within Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education, and we want to enable our students to reflect their personal views on the topic in order to engage in conversations and dialogue with others that is reflective of what they, see, feel and hear every day,” said Mazure.

The posters have been installed at various locations on campus and will be in place through Jan. 31. For those who wish to view the art, a catalog of the posters and their locations may be downloaded from the project’s webpage, esu.edu/inclusionposter. Anyone interested in sharing their comments and views on the students’ work may join the conversation online using the hashtag #inclusionposter.

The idea for the initiative is based on a poster exhibit on tolerance in Sarajevo by Mirko Ilic, a renowned designer and illustrator. For his exhibit, Ilic invited top designers from around the world to submit posters related to the topic of tolerance. It resulted in 24 posters that went on exhibit in Sarajevo in 2015.

For more information about the project, visit esu.edu/inclusionposter or contact Professor Mazure at dmazure@esu.edu or Professor Heter at sheter@esu.edu.