Launching an innovative way to share cutting-edge research with the UCLA community, an interactive exhibit showcasing the 2016 Hollywood Diversity Report published by UCLA’s Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies is popping up in several locations around campus starting this week and continuing until April 6.
The pop-up exhibit features a short video summarizing the report’s findings that entertainment industry jobs still go overwhelmingly to white male performers and filmmakers despite data that show content with more diverse casts earns higher ratings and bigger box office receipts.
The exhibit is a new approach to highlighting the scholarship of UCLA faculty. It will travel the campus with stops at the Charles E. Young Research Library, Covel Commons and the Kerckhoff Art Gallery through April 6, allowing many more students, staff and faculty the chance to learn about the relevance of the Bunche center’s report. The pop-up can be customized to shine a spotlight on other faculty projects in the future.
“We have tremendously productive and insightful faculty,” said Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Scott Waugh. “The pop-up gives us an opportunity to share innovative faculty research with the broader UCLA community. This mobile exhibit enables us to connect with Bruins all across campus, reaching beyond traditional academic publications, conferences and classrooms.”
The pop-up is part of the Every/One Initiative, a UCLA program that has hosted dinner discussions and salons to facilitate dialogue about equity and inclusion on campus.
For the report, the Bunche team studied 163 top films released in 2014 and found that racial minorities had 12.9 percent of the lead roles despite making up almost 40 percent of the nation’s population. Women directed just 4.3 percent of those films.
