ENACT: The Educational Network for Active Civic Transformation

Contents

• From the Director: "Continuing Our Work in Challenging Times" — Melissa Stimell, Director of the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life. (Page 1)

• "Ethical Engagement at Brandeis and Beyond": For 24 years, the Ethics Center has offered distinctive approaches to ethical engagement, exploring and addressing issues of pressing concern with partners on the Brandeis University campus, in local communities in Waltham and Massachusetts, across the United States and around the world. Read about how the Ethics Center’s three major current program areas continue to embody the Center’s commitments to civic engagement, ethical practices, and the values of reciprocity and listening. (Page 1)

• “An Incubator for the University”: Since 1998 Ethics Center has served as an incubator for initiatives that have had a transformative impact on Brandeis University and on individuals and in professions around the globe. Read about some of these initiatives. (Page 2)

• “Multilingual Life on a Monolingual Campus: Phase Two,” a joint research project involving the Ethics Center, and partner institutions Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia and the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom explores how international students experience language use and language attitudes on English dominated campuses. (Page 3)

• “Building a Culture of Peace: The 2021 Karpf and Hahn Awards”: The Ethics Center convenes the committee that selects the student recipients of these awards. Learn more about the awards and the 2021 recipients. (page 3)

• "Student-to-Student Support: The ENACT Student Delegates", ENACT Student Delegates Elaina Pevide '20 and Alison Cantor '22 explore new ways of strengthening ties between ENACT classes. (Page 4)

  “Voter Participation Earns Brandeis National Gold Seal Recognition”: the VoteDeis Campus Coalition, organized by Leigh Swigart and David Weinstein of the Ethics Center in collaboration with the Office of the Dean of Students, helped Brandies achieve high levels of participation in the 2020 presidential election. (Page 4)

• “Crops With No Plow: Racial Literacy as Antidote – Not Cure – to Racial Threat" — Howard C. Stevenson, the Constance Clayton Professor of Urban Education at the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education, was the 2020 winner of the Joseph B. and Toby Gittler Prize. Read and excerpt from the lecture in “Ethics Central,” and view Dr. Stevenson's lecture and conversation in conversation with Professor Joseph Reimer and Maria Madison, Associate Dean of Equity, Inclusion and Diversity, and Director Institute for Economic and Racial Equity at the Heller School. (age 5)

• "Peacebuilding and the Arts launches new non-profit with global reach: IMPACT, Inc. will strengthen  the field of arts, culture and conflict transformation". Read more about IMPACT. The Ethics Center’s Program in Peacebuilding and the Arts will also advance IMPACT’s advocacy efforts, including its work with UNESCO’s Art Lab for Human Rights and Dialogue, and will disseminate the “Invite | Affirm | Evoke | Unleash: How artistic and cultural processes transform complex challenges” report commissioned by the Porticus Community Arts Network. (See article: Ethics Central Vol 24 No. 1 page 6.)

• "The REDress Project and between us at Brandeis," two recent exhibits curated by Toni Shapiro-Phim, calls attention to the horrific levels of violence against Indigenous women and girls across North America. This past fall, the “Introduction to CAST” (CAST 150b) students designed and put in place a public installation of dresses on the Brandeis campus as part of artist Jaime Black’s REDress Project, and further amplified Jaime Black’s art and message by contributing to between us, an exhibition of Black’s other work (poems, photographs, video) inside the Kniznick Gallery. (Page 7)
• Read highlights of recent events, and recent staff highlights. (page 9)

• “Thanking Barbara Strauss for 15 Years of Service”: Appreciating Barbara Strauss’ contributions to the Ethics Center as she moves to a new role at Brandeis. (page 10.)

• Coming Soon: Richman Distinguished Fellow in Public Life Peter C. Frumhoff,  longtime chief climate scientist and director of science and policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, will be at Brandeis March 29-31, and will deliver his Richman Lecture “From Science to Action on Climate Change” March 30, 2022. (Page 10)
• Spring 2022 Courses offered by the Ethics Center. (Page 10)
• New Publication: “Advocacy for Policy Change: Brandeis Students Work to Reform Massachusetts Law – November 2021”. (Page 10)

VIEW OR DOWNLOAD THE Winter/Spring 2022 ISSUE (PDF)

Contents

• From the Director: "Welcome Back!" — Melissa Stimell, Director of the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life.

• “Multilingual Life on a Monolingual Campus,” a joint research project involving Brandeis University’s Language, Culture and Justice Hub, based at the Ethics Center, and partner institutions Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia and the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom explores how international students experience language use and language attitudes on English dominated campuses.

• Creating a Course: Confronting Gender-Based Violence: how “Confronting Gender-Based Violence” (CAST 125a), first taught in spring 2021, was created through collaboration between Toni Shapiro-Phim of the Ethics Center and Camila Cano ’23.

• ENACT: The Educational Network for Active Civic Transformation expands to all 50 states with its first virtual institute.

• "Achieving an Inclusive Democracy: What It Means" — Rebecca Cokley, the 2020 Richman Distinguished Fellow in Public Life, participates in a rescheduled, online residency in March 2021, and delivers the Richman Fellowship lecture. Cokley is a disability rights activist who has sought deeper connections across communities pursuing civil rights.

• The “Invite | Affirm | Evoke | Unleash” research project, a joint undertaking of IMPACT (Imagining Together Platform for Arts, Culture and Conflict Transformation), a global initiative housed at the Ethics Center’s Program in Peacebuilding and the Arts; ReCAST, Inc.; and the Community Arts Network, a joint venture of the Porticus Foundation and the Hilti Foundation, explores how artistic and cultural processes transform complex challenges.

• “Black Lives Matter Under a New Presidency: What Lies Ahead” – In February, past awardees of the Joseph B. and Toby Gittler Prize and the Richman Distinguished Fellowship in Public Life shared their thoughts on the direction of the Black Lives Matter movement at this pivotal moment in our nation’s history.

• The Ethics Center welcomes students, faculty and staff from across the University to our Ethics Center Campus Advisory Committee.

• The Ethics Center thanks Mark Friedman for his service to the Center’s International Advisory Board, and announces the reappointment of John Shattuck as Chair.

VIEW OR DOWNLOAD THE SUMMER/FALL 2021 ISSUE (PDF)