The CASE building, on the University of Colorado Boulder’s campus. (Courtesy of the University of Colorado Boulder)
The Center for Teaching and Learning held its annual spring conference, Promising Teaching Practices: Equity, Authenticity and AI in the Modern College Classroom, at the University of Colorado Boulder on Feb. 25.
The conference hosted panel discussions led by professors, exploring their current approaches to shaping the future of teaching and learning in higher education. Topics included generative AI, equity-minded assessment and inclusiveness.
The last panelist to speak was Nii Armah Sowah, a CU Boulder associate teaching professor and co-director of graduate studies in dance.
Sowah emphasized the importance of community collaborations across Africa and his encouragement for students to unify similarly through the expression of dance.
“To create a functioning community, we must build an African village that works together and supports each other,” Sowah said.
Held in a small meeting room in the CU Boulder Center for Academic Success and Engagement, the audience of fewer than 20 consisted of both university staff and students.
Sowah called attention to the importance of collaboration among members in African villages and said that he’s seen similar unity among Americans when tragedy occurs in the U.S.
“As soon as there’s a shooting, 9/11, everyone becomes African,” Sowah said. “At our foundational level, we are all human, and we need each other.”
Sowah is a firm believer that dance is a human right and can be used to bring people together from all cultural backgrounds.
“I have students who are dance majors, some who are from ballet, some who are from jazz, some who have never danced and are scared to bits,” Sowah said. “And they all come.”
Sowah also highlighted the importance of open-mindedness; he said that he teaches his students that, because people have different skill sets, speak different languages or come from different countries, it does not mean that they are less knowledgeable than their peers.
“I use proverbs, stories, metaphors to anchor the lessons that will make humans connect with each other as one human family, because we don’t all have to be the same,” Sowah said.
He explained that while many people have studied Africa, much of what they know is negative and framed from a Western perspective. A key part of Sowah’s career is breaking African stereotypes through dance.
“So I am not that smart because I have an accent, right?” Sowah said, referring to a common assumption that he has faced in America.
Sowah made his speech interactive by assigning different sections of the audience specific time signatures to clap along to. This demonstrated the concept of polyrhythms – two or more beats played simultaneously – and illustrated how collaboration is essential for them to function effectively.
“I love how some of the folks on this most recent panel talked about not always defaulting to centering Western, white, middle class, upper class perspectives as we often do,” said Kelly Gildersleeve, the event’s organizer and assistant director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at CU Boulder.
Throughout his speech, Sowah frequently compared the university to a building held up by its members.
“We can be different, but the difference makes the strength that holds the building up,” Sowah said.
Contact CU Independent Guest Writer Madeline Miller at Madeline.Miller@colorado.edu.
