I went (in person) to my second Wes Thinks Big this past Wednesday and the atmosphere was great for learning while not doing homework. The turnout of the audience and the excitement of students elevated the event to a much higher level than it would have been had it been in a different venue or with less people. Everyone was really excited to be there which, as Andrea Roberts pointed out during her talk, is interesting because we’re (allegedly) rarely as excited to go class. On to the highlights:
- Sarah Mahurin from the African-American Studies and English Department started off the evening with a talk on “What We Talk About When We Talk About Clothes.” She’s my advisor so full disclosure, if you’re looking at the video and you hear an audible yelp when asks the question “Well, what’s a bro?” it’s probably mine. The talk was essentially about “selective feminism” and how our conversations about people’s clothing are really conversations about gender expectations, class consciousness, and respectability politics. Memorable quotes include “You know you’re talking to a professor when they ask you if you can define your offensive term more clearly for me?” and “Sometimes thinking big means talking less.”