As COVID-19 swept across the United States in March 2020, it crippled the economy and exposed social vulnerabilities. With the closure of residential campuses and the pivot to remote learning, university administrators and faculty feared negative repercussions for both budgets and student success. In this article, we document the impact of the pandemic through a discussion of how two anthropology courses, at two very different universities, were adapted to remote learning. Our "accidental successes" suggest that a student-centered approach with flexibility and creativity in course design, as well as considering the socioeconomic realities of our students, could benefit all courses.

In May 2017, twenty “student-artists” at Mary Baldwin University collaborated to create a mural about our institution and our very diverse student community. As a three week May Term course, the mural project continued a difficult conversation about diversity and inclusion on campus that occurred in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s election as president of the United States. The purpose of this article is to discuss how ethnographic methods were used to develop mural themes, as well as to discuss the ways that the mural itself, and the process of its creation, reveal student anxieties about and responses to the policies and rhetoric of the Trump administration. Despite the very real threats to their own safety and that of their family and friends, student-artists challenged the inherent insecurity caused by administration policies through their insistence on inclusion, tolerance, and co-existence.

As American universities become more diverse, it is necessary to consider if existing pedagogies remain relevant and meaningful for all students. This paper examines service-learning, a community engagement pedagogy originally developed for white, middle-class students, by exploring the experiences of residential undergraduate students of color attending a small liberal arts college in rural Virginia. Rather than rejecting service-learning, I suggest reimagining some service-learning practicesparticularly the definition of service, the values of reciprocity and collaboration, and preparation for service-in order to meet the needs and experiences of an increasingly diverse population of college students.

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