R is for Thursday Network

R is for Thursday (R4T) is an initiative of the R is for Thursday Collective. Through special project work, R4T focuses on professional practice, including support and advocacy, with students who fall into the R4T group of populations and who are college-bound, in college or college graduates. 

---

Project highlight

Digital storytelling is used globally to provide voice and to create social change. Across history, storytelling has been used by brave people, sometimes at great risk, to fight for human change. Storywork also holds space for healing for the storyteller.

 

In 2022-2023, R4T led a campus-based project in which volunteer members of the campus community (students, staff, faculty), who had backgrounds in the experiences of hidden populations and were ready to tell their stories, wrote scripts and created 3-5 minute digital movies. While all storytellers identified as members of one or more R4T hidden populations, the resulting stories were layered with themes of sexual assault, power, race, trauma and involvement in the justice system. In March 2023, individuals from across the campus came together for an emotional and thought-provoking public screening and discussion with these brave storytellers.

 

The goal of this project was to generate critical conversations and provide education, by real people, about experiences of members of hidden populations within this specific community. The focus of discussion was on the implications for the higher education campus and steps for moving forward. R4T continues to engage with attendees and storytellers around campus-based change and advocacy for hidden populations.

 

To protect privacy and our storytellers’ ownership of their experiences, resulting digital stories are not publicly available. For more information: risforthursday@okstate.edu 

 

To provide support to the work of R4T, please email risforthursday@okstate.edu