VOL. 20, NO. 1 | WINTER 2017 CIVIC LEARNING FOR SHARED FUTURES A Publication of the Association of American Colleges and Universities Citizenship Under Siege Humanities in the Public Square VOL. 20, NO. 1 | WINTER 2017 KATHRYN PELTIER CAMPBELL, Editor TABLE OF CONTENTS BEN DEDMAN, Associate Editor ANN KAMMERER, Design 3 | From the Editor MICHELE STINSON, Production Manager DAWN MICHELE WHITEHEAD, Editorial Advisor Citizenship Under Siege SUSAN ALBERTINE, Editorial Advisor 4 | Diversity and the Future of American Democracy TIA BROWN McNAIR, Editorial Advisor WILLIAM D. ADAMS, National Endowment for the Humanities CARYN McTIGHE MUSIL, Senior Editorial 7 | Clashes Over Citizenship: Lady Liberty, Under Construction or On the Run? Advisor CARYN McTIGHE MUSIL, Association of American Colleges and Universities ANNE JENKINS, Senior Director for Communications 10 | Bridges of Empathy: Crossing Cultural Divides through Personal Narrative and Performance Advisory Board DONA CADY and MATTHEW OLSON—both of Middlesex Community College; and DAVID HARVEY CHARLES, University at Albany, PRICE, Santa Fe College State University of New York 13 | Affirming Interdependency: Interfaith Encounters through the Humanities TIMOTHY K. EATMAN, Rutgers University / Imagining America DEBRA L. SCHULTZ, Kingsborough Community College, City University of New York KEVIN HOVLAND, NAFSA: Association 16 | Addressing Wicked Problems through Deliberative Dialogue of International Educators JOHN J. THEIS, Lone Star College System, and FAGAN FORHAN, Mount Wachusett ARIANE HOY, Bonner Foundation Community College SHANNA SMITH JAGGARS, The Ohio State University Perspectives HILARY KAHN, Indiana University–Bloomington 19 | Creating a Generation of Humanitarian Art Activists (Artivists) L. LEE KNEFELKAMP, Teachers JOHN FRAZIER, Miami Dade College College, Columbia University 20 | Gentle People KEVIN KRUGER, NASPA–Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education CHRISTIAN CARMELINO and SABRINA MENDOZA, Miami Dade College GEORGE MEHAFFY, American Association 22 | An Ethics of Reading? of State Colleges and Universities / PETER BROOKS, Princeton University American Democracy Project CATHERINE MIDDLECAMP, University Campus Practice of Wisconsin–Madison 24 | Reconsidering Citizenship in the American Republic TANIA MITCHELL, University of Minnesota MICHAEL PARRELLA and JILL SCHENNUM—both of County College of Morris EBOO PATEL, Interfaith Youth Core 26 | Free Minds, Empowered Citizens: Changing Lives with the Humanities in RICHARD PRYSTOWSKY, Lansing Community College Austin JOHN SALTMARSH, University of VIVÉ GRIFFITH, Free Minds Massachusetts Boston 28 | The Humanities Action Lab: Mobilizing Civic Engagement through Mass GEORGE SANCHEZ, University Memory Projects of Southern California LIZ ŠEVČENKO, Humanities Action Lab DAVID SCOBEY, University of Michigan DARYL SMITH, Claremont Graduate University For More… 'DIMEJI R. TOGUNDE, Spelman College 30 | Resources and Opportunities ROWENA TOMANENG, Berkeley City College 31 | From the Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement Action Network KATHLEEN WONG(LAU), San José State University This issue of Diversity & Democracy was funded in part through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not Published by the Association of American Colleges and necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Universities, 1818 R Street, NW, Washington, DC 20009; tel 202.387.3760; fax 202.265.9532. Diversity & Democracy (formerly Diversity Digest) is published quarterly and is available at www.aacu.org. Copyright 2017. All rights reserved. ISSN: 2476-0137 About Diversity & Democracy The opinions expressed by individual authors in Diversity Diversity & Democracy supports higher education faculty and leaders as they design and imple- & Democracy are their own and are not necessarily those ment programs that advance civic learning and democratic engagement, global learning, of Diversity & Democracy’s editors or of the Association of and engagement with diversity to prepare students for socially responsible action in today’s American Colleges and Universities. interdependent but unequal world. The publication features evidence, research, and exem- plary practices to assist practitioners in creating learning opportunities that realize this vision. Cover photo courtesy of North Park University/ To access Diversity & Democracy online, visit www.aacu.org/diversitydemocracy/. photographer Bradley Siefert 2 ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES CIVIC LEARNING FOR SHARED FUTURES FROM THE EDITOR Exploring Key Questions of Citizenship through the Humanities Before delivering the 2015 Jefferson part of NEH’s Humanities in the Public This last topic has resonated with Lecture in the Humanities, Anna Square program. Participating institu- Smith, too, and she has focused her Deavere Smith spoke with National tions hosted public forums and other energies in recent years on a theater Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) events to prompt students, faculty, staff, project examining the “school-to-prison Chairman William Adams about the and community members to “explor[e] pipeline.” Describing that project to role the humanities play in building citizenship as a touchstone for many of Adams, she said, “The kids that I’m “empathic imagination” and the spe- the divisive issues that are fracturing interested in are the ones who aren’t cific role of theatrical performance America today,” in the words of Project getting a chance,” and she referred to in instilling empathy. In Smith’s own Director Caryn McTighe Musil (see page what Lyndon B. Johnson called “the renowned dramatic monologues, 7). Project activities prompted partici- ‘fifth freedom’ … the freedom from through which she embodies the indi- pants to examine inequities based on ignorance”—an addition to Franklin viduals she has interviewed, the project race and gender, economic stratification, Roosevelt’s original list of four. The of empathy building has taken a specific form: “My lofty goal,” she said, “has The humanities offer one of the first lines of defense been to try to become America word for word” (Smith 2015). in deflecting the violence that ignorance can inflict on Gathering the words of others and individuals and society. translating them through performance, Smith has told intensely moving stories religious difference, and immigration liberation that this freedom represents about the individuals who constitute status, among others topics, and sug- lies at the heart of AAC&U’s advocacy America in all its diversity, person by gested models for bringing campus and for liberal education and inclusive person. The stories she tells connect community together around themes excellence and forms the core of higher with, and borrow context from, the nar- at the epicenter of many of 2016’s most education’s mission as a public good. rative we as a nation often tell ourselves: troubling controversies. Indeed, if citizenship is under siege, a story of collective striving, of oppor- In this issue of Diversity & Democracy, a key force behind that attack is igno- tunity shared by those born within and project participants describe their rance—about others, and about our own beyond the borders of the United States. experiences and share models for engage- shared and individual histories. The But that narrative is hotly contested— ment developed through Citizenship humanities offer one of the first lines of and temperatures have risen recently as Under Siege. Providing context for this defense in deflecting the violence that the national dialogue intensifies around campus- and community-based work, ignorance can inflict on individuals and competing claims about America’s Adams reflects on the role of diversity society. Anna Deavere Smith is realizing enduring or expired “greatness.” Beneath in American democracy, and on the that potential by turning the theater into these claims are implied and explicit need for an educational agenda that “a new type of civic center”; this issue’s questions about citizenship—including involves honest—and difficult—conver- authors are playing their part by creating the grand but deeply resonant question sations across differences. Contributing new epicenters of civic engagement and that John Frazier asks in this issue of authors also describe their efforts to humanities-based questioning in their Diversity & Democracy: “Who are ‘We help their students become “artivists” own contexts. the People of the United States’?” (see (John Frazier, page 19); practice “an page 19). ethics of reading” (Peter Brooks, page —Kathryn Peltier Campbell In 2016, teams from seven com- 22); experience the liberating potential Editor, Diversity & Democracy munity colleges attempted to address of humanities education (Vivé Griffith, this question through participation in page 26); and interrogate pressing REFERENCE Citizenship Under Siege, a project orga- societal inequities, including those SMITH, ANNA DEAVERE. 2015. “America, Word for Word.” Interview by William Adams. nized by the Association of American represented by the prison-industrial Humanities 36 (2). https://www.neh.gov/ Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) complex (Liz Ševčenko, page 28). humanities/2015/marchapril/conversation/ and The Democracy Commitment as america-word-word. DIVERSITY & DEMOCRACY n VOL. 20, NO. 1 3 [CITIZENSHIP UNDER SIEGE] the great tests of American democracy is the progressively fuller recognition