The bus was parked between Ballantine Hall and the Chemistry Building during the high-trafficked time of the afternoon when students were walking to and from classes.
This year’s theme is titled “@Work: The Nature of Labor on a Changing Planet.” This theme focuses on the cultural, technological and historical legacy, the contemporary significance and future implications of the dramatic and ongoing changes in the worlds of work.
“We try to tackle issues of undergraduates that students will always face,” said Tracy Bee, director of academic initiatives and coordinator of the Themester program.
The College searched for course proposals that aimed to rediscover the meaning of work and play in the changed circumstances of digital technology, global markets in capital, commodities, leisure and labor and more.
In order to decide on the Themester theme, faculty members of the College put in proposals and the Committee for Undergraduate Education decided from the received submissions.
The Themester offers both old courses with a new focus on work and labor and new classes altogether within the College. Additionally, there will be a total of 50 to 75 events throughout the fall semester, all free and open to the public, minus the theatrical productions.
The College is partnering with the IU Department of Theatre, Drama and Contemporary Dance on “Sweet Charity,” a musical that will be showcased in the fall depicting the life of a ?working girl.
“I want to think about the theme as the nature of labor in a changing world,” said John Lucaites, associate dean of the College.
Lucaites said he believes the word “work” can mean lots of different things, but one of the ways it becomes a really important issue is when we begin to think about it as a site at which the politics of work come ?into play.
It is important to think not just about careers, but what can be done in those careers as it translates to a mode of labor, Lucaites said. He said recognizing the implications and effect on others is seeing how the nature of labor really defines a society.
“Framing the topic of terms of the nature of labor as it’s changing is central for students to be thinking about,” Lucaites said.
The Themester’s goal is to allow the opportunity for faculty to actively engage with students, helping them with a topic they will be exposed to for the rest of their lives. Because the College deals in multiple disciplines, this Themester aims to evoke public thinking in a multidisciplinary manner.
“This is a universal theme that everyone participating in humanity has to engage in,” said Larry Singell, executive dean of the College. “It demonstrates that in order to understand a particular topic, you really need both the width and the depth of the knowledge to understand.”
