The Project

We are creating a collection of images that center visibly diverse student participants engaged in academic contexts, and making these images freely available under a Creative Commons CC-BY license.

The Context

The educational concept of mirrors and windows advocates that students have learning materials reflecting their own identities and offering views to external experiences. As faculty design courses and learning tools, they require open-access, topical images to heighten student engagement with the content. However, it is extremely difficult to find free-to-use images of adult students with visibly-diverse identities communicating learning activities and relevant emotional moods. Many stock image banks with “diverse” models target racial aspects of diversity, feature PreK-12 students, reflect campus social life, and/or have licensing fees. While some image banks center models from underrepresented communities, scenes are primarily home life, social/recreational outings, and work/office environments. 

Seyed Shahrokni (shahroknis@wou.edu) and Janeanne Rockwell-Kincanon (kincanj@wou.edu) of Library and Academic Innovation are the project coordinators.