Students and faculty members were invited to submit their photos to prompt discussion about differences, as part of Professor M. Francyne Huckaby’s women and gender studies event: Amplify.

Huckaby held the event as part of her “delightful obligations” to the Women and Gender Studies Department since she won their annual Claudia V. Camp Faculty Research award in February 2017. The award is offered to faculty for their scholarship, research and creative activities, and requires the winner to hold two events. Amplify was Huckaby’s second event.

Huckaby said she used the name Amplify because it focused on the different ways students could amplify their experiences with the rest of the world by using film and camera. Huckaby’s goal was to teach students and faculty about the participatory camera and how it can be used to share experiences.

Students and faculty were encouraged to use photos from their own experiences as members of the TCU community and bring them to a place where common dialogue can be had to talk about different people’s experiences. The photos submitted were supposed to expressed strengths, concerns and intersectionality. Huckaby said she wanted these photos to reveal who we are, what we face and how we share our campus and the world around us.

Once a photo was taken or formed, students were asked to hashtag the photo with #amplifyWGST, and then asked to meet at the TCU Contemporary Art Gallery to talk about the photos and what they signify.

Students observed about 20 different photos, most of which dealt with feminism and oppression. The event had a tone of enlightenment as it opened students’ eyes to the different types of experiences other people have.

Wilton Wright, a graduate assistant for the women and gender studies program, submitted a photo to bring up a conversation about the power of the TCU program.

“I submitted it because it was like a crowd of over 200 people for a really famous feminist speaker so it was a really good to show that the women and gender studies program brings in a lot of people to TCU,” Wright said. “It’s a really important movement at TCU.”