Dr. Shelby J Solomon

To date many routine-attempts at encouraging diversity take an excessively paternal approach, such as forcing students into prespecified groups based upon student majors or some other readily observable difference. We view such attempts to encourage diversity as undesirable because paternal tactics limit individual freedom restraining students from the opportunity to strategize, tinker, and learn from the process. To respect individual autonomy while encouraging diversity, we offer a game based on MTV's reality series 'Are You the One'. The game encourages diversity though the use of group incentives, thereby preserving autonomy and inspiring social exploration.

This chapter elaborates on craftwork and craft entrepreneurship in the context of America. It highlights the themes that lead American craft entrepreneurs to abandon taking a traditional career path and toward a career in craftwork. The chapter illustrates how being an American and affiliated with a particular cultural region or identity inspires craft entrepreneurs to produce a particular product or employ a specific means of production. It discusses how craft entrepreneurs assess the state of the American craft category. Craft sentiments and entrepreneurs have also found growth within trades such as handcrafted soap, craft butchery and sustainably raised livestock, and handcrafted furniture. Craft entrepreneurs may come from a variety of backgrounds and operate a variety of different types of craft firms upon making the transition. However, a common theme is that craft entrepreneurs recognize traditional employment in corporate America is not for them.

In macro-business classes, we often try to help our students recognize how abstract concepts from class unfold in many different contexts. If students are able to recognize concepts across contexts and levels of analysis, then they may have the opportunity to develop their entrepreneurial and strategic skills on routine basis. Movies can be a useful and engaging tool for helping students cultivate their ability to transfer class concepts into other contexts. In particular, the movie Night of the Living Dead can be used as a type of Rorschach ink blot test for challenging students to see abstract business metaphors.