By John McCracken
Correspondent
GREEN BAY – A mathematician, photographer and political scientist walk into Neville Public Museum after hours, each bringing a unique conversation, and anyone with an internet connection can watch.
STEAM Engine is a local organization providing interactive events and lectures since spring 2017.
In a year full of hardships, STEAM Engine is bridging the gap between the arts and technical fields with a focus on social justice issues this year.
Though this year’s event is not open to the public, presentations will be streamed over the organization’s Facebook page at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 18-20.
Lucy Arendt, STEAM board member and professor of business administration at St. Norbert College emphasized the importance of these conversations in a unique year.
“It helps us to understand how we should be thinking about these elections,” Arendt said, “and how should we be thinking about this pandemic.”
Ángel Saavedra Cisneros is an assistant professor of political science at St. Norbert whose research focuses on identity.
Taking his teaching out of the classroom, Cisneros is giving a presentation about how the Hispanic and Latinx community shape their identity.
Brown County has a large growing population of Hispanic residents, with 17,985 recorded in the 2010 census, making up 7.3 percent of the population. That number is projected to currently be 15.2 percent.
Cisneros’s work focuses on the importance of how shaping of an identity can influence political preferences among other social identities.
Despite the divisive nature identity tribalism can create, Cisnero said he focuses on the positives that come with identity building.
Cisneros’s presentation kicks off three days of livestreams, starting at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 18.
Assistant professor of mathematics at St. Norbert, Jonathan Dunbar, has formulated a way to approach data and how it informs decision making on issues such as equity and access, with an accentuation on gerrymandering.
Dunbar’s Nov. 19 conversation focuses on his creation of a formula to measure the relationship between the proportion of votes a party receives and the proportion of legislative seats won as a result of that percentage of votes.
“There’re so many ways where we can study the structures that are in society with mathematics.” Dunbar said “We can see how policies are treating certain groups disproportionately. We can look at just disparate outcomes among different groups within our society and we can then ask ourselves, why is that?”
Neenah-based photographer Che Correa has compiled moments from recent protests and demonstrations focusing on racial injustices.
Her book, “Dissident Fury” provides an insight into the social and political issues behind the shots, while capturing the stories through a human lens.
Correa’s presentation ends the three-day event Nov. 20.
A live Q&A session with the presenters will follow each presentation, continuing the virtual conversation from home.