International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life

February 1, 2022

Ethics Center Director Melissa Stimell, with Brandeis graduate student Kaitie Chakoian and Brandeis alum Charlotte Powley PhD, surveyed and interviewed alumni from 10 years of the course the Brandeis ENACT course "Advocacy for Policy Change" (LGLS 161b) , which was developed by Stimell and has been taught by her since 2011.

This course is the model for our the Ethics Center's national, 50-state program ENACT: The Educational Network for Active Civic Transformation: https://www.brandeis.edu/ethics/enact/index.html

Among their conclusions:

ENACT alumni have high levels of political efficacy. They feel well-qualified to engage with the political process and believe that doing so can have an impact on political outcomes. As a result, they are much more civically engaged than the average U.S. resident. They vote at substantially higher rates and engage in various other ways. ENACT alumni retain the knowledge they learned in the class about the political process, even years after completing it. They also retain skills (speaking and writing clearly, working effectively with others, and evaluating data sources) that have helped them in their professional work – whether that work is policy-related or completely unrelated. In addition to these skills, ENACT alumni credit the networks they developed and the mentorship of ENACT faculty with the trajectories their careers have taken since leaving Brandeis.

Click here to read the full report

November 21, 2021

The 2021 edition of "Advocacy for Policy Change: Brandeis Students Work to Reform Massachusetts Law" is now available. Advocacy for Policy Change (LGLS 161b) is taught by Professor Melissa Stimell as part of the national program ENACT: The Educational Network for Active Civic Transformation.

November 18, 2021

Howard C. Stevenson, Constance Clayton Professor of Urban Education at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education has been named the winner of the 2020 Joseph B. and Toby Gittler Prize. Stevenson serves as the Executive Director of the Racial Empowerment Collaborative and contributes to Forward Promise, which promotes a culture of health for boys and young men of color, to help them heal from the trauma of historical and present-day dehumanization, discrimination and colonization. On November 18th, 2021, Stevenson delivered his keynote speech. View the talk and his conversation with Joseph Reimer, Professor, Education Program and the Hornstein Program for Jewish Professional Leadership; and Maria Madison, Lecturer, Associate Dean of Equity, Inclusion and Diversity, and Director Institute for Economic and Racial Equity here.