Recap from our “Creative Civic Learning” Panel

Are you looking for creative ways to engage students around the 2024 election? Here's a recap from Project Pericles and the Center for Artistic Activism (C4AA) Creative Civic Learning: Faculty-Led Ideas to Strengthen Democracy in 2024 from May 13th at 12 pm ET. Faculty Fellows from C4AA and Project Pericles’ Civic and Voter Engagement Fellowship Program have shared their approaches to implementing creative civic lessons in their classroom, and how other faculty and staff on campus can navigate civic discussions this election year. 

If you’re working in higher education and looking for ways to have a positive impact on your students’ involvement in the political process, you can watch a recording from the event discussing how to engage with community partners and implement creative civic lessons in unexpected disciplines. Learn more about the event and speakers here.

​This discussion featured Periclean Fellows who have incorporated civic and voter engagement coursework into their classrooms, as well as C4AA fellows. The Periclean speakers were: Dorcas E. McCoy from Bethune-Cookman University in Florida, who redeveloped her Political Theory class to work with community partners and include civic engagement discussions, Alexandra Prince from Skidmore College in New York, who incorporated deliberative dialogue into her Indigenous Access to Public Lands for Religious Ceremonies course, and David Aipperspach from Ursinus College in Pennsylvania, who incorporated discussions of hyperpartisanship into his Intro to Drawing course. 

The full panelist list and description is below. 
Creative Civic Learning: Faculty-Led Ideas to Strengthen Democracy in 2024 
presented by the Center for Artistic Activism and Project Pericles
Panelists: 

• David Aipperspach, Assistant Professor of Art and Art History in Painting and Printmaking, Ursinus College
• Margit Berman, Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology, Augsburg University; Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth
• Kristin Hughes, Professor of Design, Carnegie Mellon University

• Dorcas McCoy, Associate Professor of International Relations and Comparative Politics, Bethune-Cookman University
• Alexandra Prince, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Skidmore College
• Susan L. Smith, Associate Research Professor of Art and Graduate Coordinator of Intermedia Programs, University of Maine​

Description: As campus educators, how can we help students overcome mental and logistical challenges to make sure their voices are heard in this major election year? By embedding creative civic learning in the classroom! Faculty across the nation are incorporating artistic activism and innovative voter education into their courses that are challenging — and positively changing — their students’ outlook on and involvement in the political process. The 2024 election year is a key time for more faculty to influence students’ political participation, locally and nationally.
More about the Center for Artistic Activism & Unstoppable Voters: The Center for Artistic Activism is a nonprofit helping to create change through irresistible interventions informed by rigorous methodology. Our research, resources, and training give activists, artists, and others the tools they need to build creative campaigns and win big.