Civic Innovation

This course will address the ways we approach and consider the most pressing issues and questions of American civic life.  How do we develop creative and innovative ideas and actions that lead to thriving democratic communities in the face of social, political, and cultural differences?  The course will include work in a civic engagement project as a way to apply concepts to a real-world community issue. 

The work of community building and citizenship involves the practice and use of many different skills. This course allows students to develop proficiency across a range of areas necessary for the organization and implementation of community projects and initiatives, including, but not limited to, those related to project leadership and management, making public presentations, and conducting community-based conversations and interviews.

Students develop skills for implementing major projects, focusing on innovation and prototyping social entrepreneurial ideas. Students will acquire skills for identifying results and articulating their work in terms of results achieved in projects and other settings.

Students acquire skills for organizing and implementing collaborative research to find innovative responses to community needs. Students learn how to deploy interviewing, transcription, and reporting skills, and social media skills for effective collaborative innovation and project implementation.

Drawing from efforts for social and cultural change across regional, national, and international contexts, students apply key lessons and strategies to specific contemporary issues and questions, emphasizing the development of innovative ideas and building support for them. Students understand the difference between policy driven innovation and change and citizen driven innovation and change, particularly in the Appalachian context, and assess the effectiveness of those change efforts based on outcomes.

As part of an ongoing major project, student teams effectively organize and mobilize citizens to take on collaborative work that innovatively addresses community needs to achieve tangible results. Teams develop result leaders, recruit participants, negotiate instances of conflict, and identify and learn from mistakes. Civic Project: Organizing Collaborative Work.

The work of community building and citizenship involves the practice and use of many different skills.  This course allows students to develop proficiency across a range of areas necessary for leading community groups, organizations, and projects, including those related to staff development and volunteer recruitment, fundraising, grant writing, and program evaluation and assessment, among others. 

The work of community building and citizenship involves the practice and use of many different skills. This course allows students to develop proficiency across a range of areas necessary for leading community groups, organizations, and projects, including, but not limited to, those related to staff development and volunteer recruitment, fundraising, grant writing, and program evaluation and assessment.

Addressing an identified civic issue or question, students apply a range of both quantitative and qualitative research methods to identify innovative ways to achieve tangible outcomes for a community.

In the contexts of the five boroughs of New York, students examine and articulate the relationship between urban society and the built environment, with particular focus on the effects of that relationship on civic innovation for social justice. Students apply their understanding to contemporary urban contexts, including New York, and to local rural communities. Has a travel component.

This course is an exploration of questions and issues related to the ways that digital forms of media, especially social media, affect our understanding of citizenship and our involvement in civic life.  Discussions, readings, and other course materials will focus on the intersections between civic engagement and digital media, including such topics as digital literacy, digital ethics, the information divide, collective identity, civic participation, the role of social media in social movements, and cultural analysis of digital media. 

Students will confront questions and issues related to the ways that digital forms of media, especially social media, affect our understanding of citizenship, our involvement in civic life, and our understanding of community. Discussions, readings, and other course materials will focus on the intersections between civic engagement and digital media, including such topics as digital literacy, digital ethics, the information divide, collective identity, civic participation, and cultural analysis of digital media.

In the face of increasing polarization around issues of religion in the public sphere, what tensions and possibilities impact American political life and the development of public policy? This course will address the role of religion in public life, exploring the ways religion shapes perspectives about public policy issues related to gender, families, sexuality, science, race, immigration, education, and work, among others. Consideration will be given to the impact of religious views on the democratic process and related institutions, including the role of religion in social movements and the implications of the rise of Christian nationalism.

In the face of increasing polarization around issues of religion in the public sphere, what tensions and possibilities impact American political life and the development of public policy?  This course will address the role of religion in public life, exploring the ways religion shapes perspectives about public policy issues related to gender, families, sexuality, science, race, immigration, education, and work, among others.  Consideration will be given to the impact of religious views on the democratic process and related institutions, including the role of religion in social movements and the implications of the rise of Christian nationalism. 

In the face of the continued fraying of the social fabric through the dismantling of traditional institutions that promote cohesion and promote civic virtue, how should we approach the development of communities and community leaders?  We will explore the theories and methods of community development and examine and interrogate the notion of community itself.  We will consider the history of community development as a contested response to situated social problems such as persistent poverty and growing economic inequality.  We will consider community development through an asset-based model that focuses on agency and the existent capacity of communities rather than on deficiency and dysfunction.  

While engaged in a significant leadership on a major collaborative project, drawing on the work already accomplished in the CVIN program, students deploy entrepreneurial leadership skills, developing innovative solutions to identified problems and opportunities, to achieve tangible outcomes on the project. This serves as one part of the two part capstone experience. 

Students produce a major interdisciplinary paper in which they explore an issue or question they have confronted over their time in the program. Students apply concepts of innovation, citizenship, and place, articulating a statement of purpose or identity of themselves as innovative civic leaders. Both the paper and the results portfolio are a part of the student's capstone presentation. Public presentation of Four Year Results Portfolio.

Independent and interdisciplinary research in a special topic for honors.

Independent and interdisciplinary research in a special topic for honors.