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What‘s the concept?

EYE TO EYE Flashcards is both a learning tool, and a means of public engagement, that seeks to level the field of public discourse and invite everyone to contribute to the conversations that matter most in our society.

 

These flashcards do not "dumb down" academic concepts — they stay true to the concepts while translating them into lay speech.

 

Using EYE TO EYE Flashcards, people from different walks of life can understand, take part in, and initiate conversations that need to be discussed more our society — conversations on topics like gender and sex, climate change, institutional racism, health care, accessibility, education, and the economy. 

Two graduate students stand with flashcards in their hands in front of a circular, colorful painting by Howardena Pindell at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.
A photo of a purple and black box of flashcards that says EYE TO EYE FLASHCARDS GENDER & SEX EDITION. The box is lying flat on a white tabletop, next to some loose purple flashcards with a Judith Butler quote and its translation in white text. The box has hand-drawn eyes that look up at the viewer.

The box design of this prototype makes it easy to thumb the cards up, one at a time, during an event or conversation. Box color will change with each new deck topic.

The project seeks to raise visibility for academics and their concepts, while challenging them to reconsider the language they use to communicate their ideas. EYE TO EYE aims to broaden the audience for some of our society's most brilliant academic minds, while demonstrating that there is much that academics can learn in talking with a larger cross section of people than the 1.7% of Americans that hold PhDs. 

In addition to promoting the decks as a learning tool for private study, the flashcards can be used to hold live public audience events — similar to live talk shows — where the guests are established academics and "regular people" who, for the purposes of this project, are defined as the 89% of us who do not hold advanced degrees in this country.

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