{"id":15429,"date":"2014-08-19T12:36:45","date_gmt":"2014-08-19T16:36:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carleton.ca\/edc\/?p=15429"},"modified":"2021-08-13T10:16:42","modified_gmt":"2021-08-13T14:16:42","slug":"hip-hop-legal-studies-collide-spotlight-melanie-adrian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/2014\/hip-hop-legal-studies-collide-spotlight-melanie-adrian\/","title":{"rendered":"When hip-hop and legal studies collide: Spotlight on Melanie Adrian"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Cassandra Hendry <\/em><\/p>\n

Picture this: It\u2019s the first day of class. There is no syllabus, grades or requirements. This doesn\u2019t mean they aren\u2019t available yet; they actually don\u2019t exist. When the third-year students shuffle into their seats, the professor asks a surprising question to her class: \u201cSo, what do you want to learn?\u201d<\/p>\n

Welcome to law professor Melanie Adrian\u2019s classroom. And that\u2019s not all. If you visited her first-year law class, you might see students watching a rap video and then discussing it in relation to legal frameworks and paradigms. \u2018Just your typical course\u2019 is not in Adrian\u2019s vocabulary.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve learned to take some risks with teaching. I\u2019m always thinking about the most creative ways to keep the classroom a dynamic, living, constantly thinking environment and community,\u201d says Adrian, who recently won a 2014 New Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award.<\/p>\n

An anthropologist by training, Adrian takes a unique and often hands-on approach to teaching. She says she tries to help students, especially intimidated or nervous first years, connect to the material. One way is through pop culture: rap music.<\/p>\n

One example is when Adrian played a Zimbabwean hip-hop song to her students. That day, they were learning about the intersection of human rights and democracy. It turns out that the song was based entirely on that theme, and through an accessible medium, Adrian could pique her students\u2019 interests.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbout 95 per cent relate on some level to this kind of music, either culturally, linguistically or musically,\u201d she says. \u201cIf you bring it home in a context which they\u2019re more familiar with and then build out from there, it\u2019s an easier transition.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s worked. Adrian says her students seem more confident and have improved their grades. One student even told her at the end of the year that had it not been for her class, they would have dropped out of university.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s pretty powerful. It\u2019s one of the reasons I teach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite being at Carleton for only four years so far, Adrian\u2019s already been praised for her innovative teaching. Nomination letters poured in for her recent award and she\u2019s heard a lot of positive feedback about her courses. But for her, all she\u2019s focused on is helping her students not only succeed but grow.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re responsible for is teaching. And hopefully what we can do is generate a long-lasting creativity and ingenuity of thought in our students. That\u2019s really what I\u2019m after.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Cassandra Hendry Picture this: It\u2019s the first day of class. There is no syllabus, grades or requirements. This doesn\u2019t mean they aren\u2019t available yet; they actually don\u2019t exist. When the third-year students shuffle into their seats, the professor asks a surprising question to her class: \u201cSo, what do you want to learn?\u201d Welcome to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[484,377,201],"yoast_head":"\nWhen hip-hop and legal studies collide: Spotlight on Melanie Adrian - Teaching and Learning Services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Cassandra Hendry Picture this: It\u2019s the first day of class. 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