The Pitzer College 50Th Anniversary Engaged Faculty Collection: Community Engagement and Activist Scholarship
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The Pitzer College 50th Anniversary Engaged Faculty _____________ Collection Community Engagement & Activist Scholarship _____________ Edited by: Tessa Hicks Peterson The Pitzer College 50th Anniversary Engaged Faculty Collection: Community Engagement and Activist Scholarship Edited by: Tessa Hicks Peterson Contributions by: Nigel Boyle, Jose Calderon, Paul Faulstich, Mary Hatcher-Skeers, Alan Jones, Alexandra Juhasz, Gina Lamb, Susan A. Phillips, Brinda Sarathy, Scott Scoggins, Erich Steinman, Kathleen S. Yep COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT CENTER Community Engagement Center publishes works that further Pitzer College’s objectives of social responsibility and social justice through community-based education and scholarship. Published by Pitzer College Community Engagement Center 1050 N. Mills Avenue, Claremont, CA 91711 www.pitzer.edu/offices/cec/ www.pitzer.edu Pitzer College is a registered trademark of Pitzer College, A Member of the Claremont Colleges Copyleft 2014 by Community Engagement Center The texts in this book are copyleft (except where indicated). The authors and publishers permit others to copy, distribute, display, quote and create derivative works based upon them in print and electronic format for any non- commercial, non-profit purposes, on the conditions that the original author is credited, Pitzer College 50th Anniversary Engaged Faculty Collection: Community Engagement and Activist Scholarship is cited as a source along with our website address, and the work is reproduced in the spirit of the original. The editor would like to be informed of any copies produced. All photographs in this book are copyright of the photographers, and may not be reproduced without permission. Reproductions of the texts for commercial purposes is prohibited. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication-Data Pitzer College 50th Anniversary Engaged Faculty Collection: Community Engagement and Activist Scholarship / edited by Tessa Hicks Peterson p. cm. ISBN: 978-0-9829956-7-9 (paper) 1. Student Service – United States. 2. Social justice – Study and teaching – United States. I. (TESSA HICKS PETERSON, 1976) Printed in the United States of America First Edition, 2014 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents Acknowledgements 7 Introduction Framing Pitzer’s Practices of Critical Engagement 8 Tessa Hicks Peterson Chapter 1 Unsettling Engagements: Pitzer Collaborations With Indigenous Nations, Communities and Individuals 19 Erich Steinman and Scott Scoggins Reflective Review 26 Gina Lamb Chapter 2 When Media Activism, Teaching and LGBT Youth Rights Intersect 27 Gina Lamb Reflective Review 34 Erich Steinman Chapter 3 Feminist Digital Research/Pedagogy/Writing as Community-based Practice 35 Alexandra Juhasz Reflective Review 39 Kathleen S. Yep Chapter 4 The Power of Collective Expression (2012): College Students and Immigrant Women Learning Together 40 Kathleen S. Yep Reflective Review 45 Alexandra Juhasz Chapter 5 Huerta del Valle: A New Nonprofit in a Neglected Landscape 46 Susan A. Phillips Reflective Review 53 Paul Faulstich Contents v Chapter 6 Pitzer College Outback Preserve Restoration Project 54 Paul Faulstich Reflective Review 68 Susan A. Phillips Chapter 7 The Institute for Global/Local Action & Study 69 Nigel Boyle Reflective Review 72 Mary Hatcher-Skeers Chapter 8 Providing Access to STEM 73 Mary Hatcher-Skeers Reflective Review 77 Nigel Boyle Chapter 9 Engaging Students in Community-based Partnerships for Environmental Justice: Reflections on CCAEJ’s Organizing Academy 78 Brinda Sarathy Reflective Review 84 Jose Calderon Chapter 10 The Commonalities in Our Past Transform Pedagogy for the Future 85 Jose Calderon Reflective Review 94 Brinda Sarathy Conclusion Building an Effective Institutional Infrastructure in Support of Community-based Pedagogy 95 Alan Jones Faculty Biographies 101 Contents vi Acknowledgements Without those who came before us—those whose land we are on; those whose radical visions of merging activism and academia founded our school; those who built the diverse and vibrant communities in which we now engage; those who first stepped off campus to build new relationships with these communities—no attempts at facilitating meaningful community engagement and activist scholarship would be possible. In addition to acknowledging the foundational work of these pioneers, I would also like to acknowledge the many students, faculty, staff and community partners who continue to work tirelessly together to foster new pathways for community-based education, research, organizing and advocacy to take place in and through Pitzer College today. In particular, I am deeply grateful for the staff of the Community Engagement Center, whose unwavering dedication to social justice, hard work and good humor sustain not only my sanity and joy on a daily basis, but also the day-to-day needs of the community partnerships we help facilitate. Great appreciation is also due to the many folks who encouraged and supported the creation of this anthology, from our institutional leaders (the Board of Trustees, President Laura Skandera Trombley and Dean Muriel Poston) to the on-the-ground staff who brought the vision to fruition (namely, Mark Bailey and Stephanie Estrada at Pitzer’s Communications department, our copyediting guru, Mary Bartlett, and my research assistant/ Pitzer’s community engagement poster child, Nicholas Romo). Of course, most importantly, I have immense gratitude for the incredibly thoughtful (and incredibly busy!) faculty members who lent their time, expertise and reflections for this anthology—as colleagues, mentors and friends, you endlessly inspire me by the ways in which you each walk the talk of social justice, community engagement and activist scholarship. Tessa Hicks Peterson Pitzer College Claremont, California May, 2014 Acknowledgements 7 INTRODUCTION Framing Pitzer’s Practices of Critical Engagement Tessa Hicks Peterson, Assistant Professor, Urban Studies Assistant Vice President of Community Engagement ctivist scholars rarely have the chance to sit back and reflect on the impact, significance, A challenges and opportunities that result from their work melding critical intellectual analysis and community-based efforts for social change. They are too busy doing the work! And, yet, as any practitioner of community-based teaching, learning, research, advocacy or service can attest, critical reflection is key to both individual learning and positive collective impact. And so, it is with this charge and opportunity that the dozen scholars represented in this anthology came together to reflect on their experiences with activist scholarship and community engagement. Another impetus for the creation of this collection is the fact that while a great amount of meaningful social change work has been done by faculty and students in and with local and global communities since Pitzer College’s inception 50 years ago, few Never too young to start community engagement, my 22-month-old son, Isaiah people know about the depth of these efforts, much Peterson, does some planting during our MLK Jr. Day of Service at the Chaffey less the extent of their impacts. As discovered in the Communities Center “Living Histories” garden, as part of Pitzer’s partnership process of creating this anthology, even the most with local native elder Barbara Drake. seasoned faculty members who have done this work for years had limited knowledge about the work of their colleagues (even though they work side by own Pitzer community and in our broader network side on our small campus, and often in the same of peer activist scholars and engaged faculty around communities off campus!). After hearing a number of the country. The pieces in this anthology are informed faculty remark over the years that we ought to publish by a practitioner’s lens and explore a range of topics, our own anthology to share these stories, it seemed including: the diverse philosophical, pedagogical most appropriate to bring the idea to fruition as part and political approaches utilized in community of our celebration of Pitzer’s 50th anniversary. engagement work; the benefits and outcomes of community-based education (for teachers/scholars, We hope this sharing of pedagogical methodologies disciplines, institutions, students, and community and critical personal reflections on community-based partners); how these efforts can aid in larger contexts teaching and scholarship will provide valuable insight, of social change (within society, at large and the models and perhaps even inspiration to others in our university, in particular); what tensions and challenges Introduction 8 arise in the lived experience of community civic literacy, activist scholarship and community engagement; and, of course, personal reflections on engagement, Pitzer College supports innovative, specific projects and partnerships the contributors progressive and applied tactics for teaching, learning have participated in. and research that will not only transform individuals, but also communities and institutions. Following a Freirian model of dialogic teaching and learning, this anthology attempts to create a conversation amongst the various participants The origins of community by inviting contributors to read and reflect on engagement in the academy each other’s work in this volume. Thus, you will find a short review of each chapter by a fellow Pitzer’s community engagement practice joins and faculty contributor whose work shares some advances a history of innovative pedagogy and thematic similarities. The process of coming