The Underground Railroad (Dreams & Conflicts: Scholar's Studio Fall 2017)

This guide was created to provide enrichment materials and resources to the Fall 2017 Freshman cohort of Bowie State's Scholar's Studio program. Using the book by Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad, students explored their personal Dreams & Conflicts, and explored the connections of those experiences to the larger historical context of the African American experience. We hope that others outside our campus community find these resources useful.

Barbara Cheadle, Librarian

We will use writing as a means to uncover and share what we think about the following questions:

• What are dreams?  What are y/our dreams?
• What are conflicts?  What are  y/our conflicts?
• How do dreams, conflicts, and reality interrelate?
• How can dreams lead to conflicts? 
• How can conflicts impede or alter our dreams?
• What is the American Dream? What are American dreams?
• What are African (American) Dreams? What is the American Conflict?
• What are American conflicts? What are African (American) conflicts?
• What can we discover by analyzing African American history and culture (specifically African American visual culture) in terms of dreams and conflicts?
• How does writing help us to better understand the nature of our dreams, conflicts, and reality?

We will also learn and practice different forms of written and oral communication, and we will engage in collaborative learning, research, and assessment to help us explore our questions and formulate conclusions.

We will participate in activities to accompany our investigation, including

• Reading texts (academic, literary, and visual)
• Responding to texts and experiences,
• Pursuing co-curricular activities, 
• Building a House of Dreams and Conflicts with the use of 3-D printers, and
• Assessing what we do and how we do it.