Women, Music and Power Student Presentations at the 2016 Student Arts and Research Symposium

It has been a whirlwind of a semester for my First-Year Seminar students. We started this class way back in January and through the past four months, we've listened to and discussed the music of Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, Patti Smith, Tracy Chapman, Fiona Apple, Dolly Parton, Queen Latifah, Bikini Kill, Beyoncé, and so many more. This past Monday, the groups got together to present their research at the Arts and Research Symposium at Bridgewater State University. They worked hard on these projects and this hard work shone through as they presented research on how women in music confront domestic violence and sexual abuse, organizations that support women in music, how women in music are sexually empowered rather than submitting to the male gaze, the political power of Beyoncé, and finally, the contrasting ways the media, specifically Rolling Stone Magazine, writes about women musicians versus male musicians. They all did an amazing job and it was by far our biggest audience of the day! I am so proud of all their work over the semester but particularly the way they worked together to put these amazing projects on display. I've had such an amazing time with this group all semester. We have shared, sometimes disagreed, but always trusted and respected each other.