Students at Cabrini University are exposed to way more than your standard college curriculum. Cabrini offers several courses that aim to expand students perceptions about many social justice issues like family, gender, class, power, privilege, equality and so much more. Engagements with the Common Good, or ECG as it is commonly called, presents students with the opportunity to learn about issues that may not have been taught in their high school years.
There is a new ECG course offered at Cabrini this semester and it is sparking conversation about race and identity from an unlikely topic. The course is called Race & Identity in Comics, Graphic Design Novels and Pop Culture. This class explores the issues of race and identity through several different platforms like pop culture, and students get to be exposed to a diverse amount of comics and graphic novels with the protagonist being one of an unlikely race or gender.
The course is run and taught by ECG professors Eugene Ahn and Matthew McNelis.
“Well we started teaching this class this semester and Eugene and I are both self professed comic book fans so to speak and we really wanted to look at comic books and how they affect race, gender and social justice,” McNelis said.
This course is a ECG 100 course so it is particularly set aside for first year students. One of the things that this course also teaches is how to properly conduct research and use citations.
“We talk about using the databases, evaluating sources and even things like public speaking and making a research poster. This prepares students not only for their majors but for their coursework going forward,” McNelis said.
ECGs are required by all Cabrini students throughout their first three years of their education here. Students have a choice of either taking a ECG in the fall semester or the spring semester. ECG 100 courses are offered at four credits while ECG 200 and 300 are only three credits.
“The biggest thing that we want students to get out of this course is for students to examine not only themselves but other people, especially other people who are different from them, ” McNelis said. “Having students walk a mile in someone else’s shoes will probably be the biggest thing to help students understand where they fit and see where everyone else fits.”
One of the graphic novels that the students are studying is called “March” by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell. This text tells the true life story of Congressman John Lewis and how he fought for civil rights along with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The book goes into detail on how Lewis was beaten and arrested while striving for equality.
“I think this class should be taught here at Cabrini because college students should be able to learn and talk about things that aren’t like themselves, especially first year students. A lot of them come in with preconceived notions stemming from their parents and their environment and having something where they have to read an Asian-based comic or a comic with a black main character is good for everyone,” McNelis said.
