And yes, we are far from polished
far from pristine
but that doesn't mean we are
striving to form a union that is perfect
We are striving to forge a union with purpose
― Excerpt from Amanda Gorman's poem "The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the Country"
What is the purpose of community-university partnerships? Whose knowledge and experiences are centered? What does it mean to “be with” and “belong to” a community? What are the limitations of “helping” and “giving back”? How can we act in solidarity with a community's vision for itself?
Each academic year, Duke Service-Learning chooses a theme to focus our work and to learn with and from our communities. We are designating our efforts in 2021-22 as Communities First: Purposes, Partnerships, and Practices. We hope you’ll join us in the months ahead as faculty, students, staff, and community partners share their experiences and practices for co-constructing knowledge, disrupting hierarchy, and enacting our shared liberation.
Check out our programming below and stay tuned for more announcements as the Fall 2021 semester unfolds!
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Reflecting on Community in a Time of Uncertainty
Monday, 12/6, 12:00pm-1:30pm
Service-learning and community-engaged partnerships have remained virtual or are greatly changed from previous years. Join fellow SLCE faculty members to reflect on lessons learned from the Fall 2021 semester and creative ways colleagues have remained committed to, connected with, and excited by community partnerships during this continued period of uncertainty and change. Students from Adam Rosenblatt’s Drawing Community course will provide a thought-provoking prompt to guide our discussions. Invitation only.
Communities Learning Together
Tuesday, 9/21, 1:30pm-3:00pm
How do we build ethical and sustainable local and global partnerships? What are strategies to co-construct pathways that transform how we learn together? Join us for a conversation that will provide principles and on-the-ground realities of university-community partnerships. Joan Clifford, Director of the Community-Based Language Initiative with Duke Service-Learning, will summarize her recent research on university-community partnerships. Liliana Paredes, Professor of the Practice of Romance Studies, will provide an international model by describing her partnership with Universidad de las Américas in Mexico. Participants will reflect together on how we can teach and learn in ways that put communities first. Please join us on Zoom – all are welcome. RSVP here.
Negotiating Belonging: Whose Community?
Tuesday, 10/26, 12:00pm-1:30pm, West Duke 101
Who defines our communities and community boundaries? How do we navigate and negotiate belonging or not belonging? What is the role of critical consciousness in evolving our understanding of our role in community? This conversation will provide different experiences of “being with” community from both a faculty and student perspective. We will hear from Ginny Ramírez-DelToro on developing a course that examines the role language plays in creating a sense of belonging, and Emily Gitlin, a DGHI student challenged to "be with" children in India in a virtual summer research project with Udayan Care. Join us to explore case studies on belonging and reflect on your own sense of community. RSVP here.
Centering Community Questions in Collaborative Inquiry
Thursday, 11/4, 12:00pm-1:30pm
How do we know if we’re doing community-engaged work? That our engagement responds to community-driven purposes? The focus of this session will be to showcase outcomes from collaborative inquiry that include perspectives from a Bass Connections team and AmeriCorps members. Please join us on Zoom – all are welcome. RSVP here.
Inside and Outside the Wall: A conversation with Dean Martin Smith and Dean John Blackshear about being in community
Wednesday, 11/17, 4:30pm-6:00pm, Keohane Atrium
How do we create a campus culture in which every person feels welcomed, included, and equitably engaged? Join us for a student-centered conversation with Dean Martin Smith and Dean John Blackshear focused on creating and sustaining an inclusive, just community. The deans will be joined by faculty and student leaders who will serve as discussants and curators of the conversation. Each of our guests brings great insight into learning, human development, what it means to live and learn in community. This highly interactive, candid conversation will occur in Keohane Atrium. RSVP here.
