Anna Jensen (CAS’23, Pardee’23), Shanara Mahaarachchi (CGS’20, CAS’22) and Ahmed Youssef (ENG’25,’25)
As part of the BU Hub’s Cross-College Challenge, Anna Jensen (CAS’23, Pardee’23) and Shanara Mahaarachchi (CGS’20, CAS’22) worked with researcher Ahmed Youssef (ENG’25,’25) to communicate scientific findings through art.
A Vibrant Academic Experience

Academic Pioneers Turn Their Tassels

In fall of 2018, BU’s freshman class embarked on an academic journey that has fundamentally altered the type of student and citizen we send out into the world. In the spring of 2022, these pioneers will be the first to earn their degrees while fulfilling requirements of the BU Hub, the University-wide general education program.

The Hub is designed to encourage students to explore a broad array of disciplines and ways of thinking. Through a variety of courses and innovative and cross-disciplinary learning experiences, students develop a core set of essential intellectual capacities—knowledge, skills, and habits of mind—that equip them to thrive in their personal, professional, and civic lives.

The Hub encourages students to develop transferable skills. In the class Thinking Through Puppets and Performing Objects, students communicate abstract research concepts in four minutes or less to an audience without any scientific training. The course’s creator says that conveying complex information in simple terms is about crafting a meaningful metaphor.

“In this 21st-century job market, where there are careers that will be some of the top professions a decade from now that we don’t even know about, having skills that are transferable in communication and thinking and teamwork is really important,” says David Carballo, assistant provost for general education and professor of anthropology.

The program is also stimulating faculty to think about teaching in new and multidisciplinary ways. Felice Amato, a College of Fine Arts assistant professor of art education, teamed up with Jessica Bozek, a senior lecturer in the College of Arts & Sciences Writing Program. Together, they led a class called Thinking Through Puppets and Performing Objects, where undergraduates are paired with master’s and PhD students from across BU to communicate abstract research concepts to an audience without any scientific training. “It’s all about crafting metaphor,” Amato says.

The topics included civil forfeiture, anthropomorphism in 20th-century literature, protein folding and its relation to disease, American Sign Language learning for deaf and hard-of-hearing babies, and reentry employment counseling for people who were incarcerated. The final pieces were performed over Zoom to an audience of friends, parents, researchers, and professionals in the puppetry scene.

“Making a show beautiful and magical takes a lot of effort,” says Shanara Mahaarachchi (CGS’20, CAS’22). “At first I’d assumed that puppetry would be a childish thing, but it can be so thought-provoking.”