Telling Our Stories

Student Experiences at UW-Tacoma

Stories and storytelling provide an opportunity to make deeper connections; they help us to better understand the experiences of others, they have the ability to connect us to deeper issues and humanize those issues, as well as give us a way to find common ground where we can develop compassion, empathy and respect.

Many interwoven stories make up the life and identities of each one of us. These include those from our personal family histories, our cultural backgrounds, the countries, cities and towns where we live, as well as the various communities we engage with, such as the college community.

The diverse community of our UW-Tacoma campus gives us a chance to learn about multiple histories and stories that we might otherwise not hear about. Therefore, this project engages students in conversation about diversity and difference as it is experienced on campus. The goal is to foster a space where these stories can be heard and develop enriching ways of understanding one another and the world around us.

Project Description

The Telling Our Stories project is designed so students work in teams to document and produce short digital stories highlighting the experiences of other UW-Tacoma students with regards to one or various aspects of their identity, whether related to race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, disability, place of origin, etc. The goal is to understand how student’s identity, and overall way of seeing the world, affect their college experience, whether in the classroom or on other spaces across campus.

Through this course, students engage in conversation about their social identities and their positionality in relationship to their classmates and the individuals they interview. The project employs different elements of pre-production, production and post-production skills, which the students have acquired over the course of this class. In addition to the videos, students have also developed this online platform where the work can be viewed and made accessible to the public.

The TCOM 347- Television Criticism and Application course (section B), was taught by Dr. Sonia De La Cruz in Autumn 2019.