Forging Social Ideals
Overview
How are ideals shaped, shared, and changed? This cluster examines that question at the personal, local, and national levels. Because we are interested in how individual and group ideals are actively formed and revised, we study both representations and realities. Drawing from the disciplines of environmental science, literature, education, and politics, we explore the many ways in which ideals are anticipated and realized in different contexts: from schools to neighborhoods, from non-profit agencies to professional associations, from local activist groups to international social movements. The cluster offers a significant opportunity for community service. Students who hope to pursue careers in law, public policy studies, environmental studies, political science, literacy studies, and teaching will benefit.
Courses
Seminar: English 80FCS Ways with Words: The Politics of Literacy as a Social Ideal
Van E. Hillard, Assistant Professor of the Practice, University Writing Program and Department of English
This course borrows its title from sociolinguist Shirley Brice Heath's Ways
with Words, her landmark study of language learning in two North Carolina
communities. Heath finds that values associated with learning to read and write
aren't universal, but rather contingent to specific cultural traditions and interests.
She reminds us that socialization into new language practices is often a complicated and,
at time, troubling passage. To become newly literate is commonly considered advantageous
— a route to political empowerment, social mobility, or enhanced citizenship. Yet,
such an accomplishment may also evoke a complex liminality, as one negotiates his/her
membership in competing communities, where preferences for communicative styles, rhetorical
agency, and linguistic register differ. Using various theoretical frameworks, the course
will examine the politics of literary by turning to both autobiographical and fictional
literacy narratives, including the works of Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, James Baldwin,
Edward Said, Richard Rodriguez, Eva Hoffman, Gloria Anzaldúa, Alice Kaplan, and
James Beatty.
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Seminar: Civic Engagement
David Malone, Associate Professor of the Practice and Director of Undergraduate Studies, Program in Education
This course will explore civic engagement and service learning as pedagogical approaches in both K-12
and college settings. The ways civic engagement experiences may impact students' perspectives of race,
class, gender will be topics of discussion. Students will analyze issues through the lens of education as a
transformative experience. This course includes a service learning experience focused on literacy issues
in K-12 schools in which students write reflections on ethical issues.
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Seminar: Environment 181 Green Cities & Neighborhoods
Sally Schauman, Adjunct Professor, Nicholas School of the Environment & Earth Sciences; Professor Emerita, University of Washington
What is a green city? Economists, ecologists and landscape architects have
theories that help us answer this question. Do green cities usually have healthy
neighborhoods? Research from occupational health, environmental psychology and
child development inform our understanding of urban/suburban health. This course
will explore theories and research across disciplines with the aim of enabling
students to develop well-informed opinions and priorities on the relationships
between a green city and a healthy neighborhood. While the science to create green
cities and healthy neighborhoods exists and is increasing, implementation depends on
political will and social acceptance. Using case studies of American cities, the course
will investigate the ethical and social conundrums involved in having city-wide
environmental goals.
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Seminar: Education 80FCS Social Movements: An Overview
Jean O’Barr, Distinguished University Service
Professor and Founding Director of Women’s Studies; Professor of the Practice,
Program in Education
Social movements are one process by which social ideals
arise, are crystallized, and influence society at large.
This course will investigate selected social movements, historical
and contemporary, with a comparative lens. Understanding
leaders, organizations, contexts, ideologies, strategies,
and outcomes are all part of understanding the cycles
of social movements. Through readings, role-plays,
and individual research, this course will examine several movements
in detail.
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Focus 99 Special Topics in Focus: Forging Social Ideals
Van E. Hillard, Assistant Professor of the Practice, University Writing Program and Department of English
Since social ideals fundamentally reflect the ways in which members of communities deliberate about
shared concerns, this course is a vital public space within the cluster. Here, in weekly meetings, we
carry out intellectual roles and responsibilities related to issues studied in the cluster of courses,
extending the work of the seminars in new directions.
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