Ten Newly Awarded Mellon PFLs Will Empower Students to be Community Leaders through Humanities Courses

Project Pericles is delighted to announce that 10 faculty members representing 10 Periclean institutions were selected as part of Cohort III of  The Andrew W. Mellon Periclean Faculty Leadership (PFL) Program™ in the Humanities. This PFL program  connects the humanities with civic engagement in the classroom, on campus, in the community, and more expansively, in  society. 

They will teach new, innovative courses  with a community-initiated project that addresses grand challenges including climate change, education access, immigration, mass incarceration, race and inequality, and voter engagement. This program is supported by The Andrew W.  Mellon  Foundation and The Eugene M. Lang Foundation.

This new cohort are developing ambitious courses taught in Fall 2021-Spring 2022 that will make positive impacts on their local communities: 
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Robert Sanchez at Occidental College is proposing the country’s first undergraduate Latinx Philosophy course, where students will make Latinx philosophy teachings accessible at the local community library “Libros Schmibros” in East LA. Students will address immigration, education access and race and inequality by facilitating philosophical discussions and sharing resources with community members in East Los Angeles, a historically Mexican-American community. The goal is “getting ‘non-philosophers’ to see the value of philosophy, and getting philosophers to see the value of lived experience and relevance of cultural identity.”
 
Education access and race and inequality will be addressed by Evan Mack and David Howson at Skidmore College. Their course “Save the Music: Civic Engagement and Program Building in Rural Public Schools,” will include a partnership with We Are Instrumental, a local nonprofit that collects and distributes instruments to under-resourced schools. Students will coordinate professional development opportunities for school music faculty and develop inventory systems so partner schools can track their instruments. 
 
These are just two examples of Mellon Periclean Faculty Leaders (PFLs) and their courses. A full list of awardees is below. 

Among this new cohort, community partners range from an urban garden to a local lending library to a shelter for pregnant youth. Mellon PFLs represent a variety of disciplines including Art History, English, Gender Studies, German, History, Humanities, Music, Peace and Conflict Studies, and Philosophy. 
 
The Presidents, Provosts, or Program Directors on each Periclean campus nominated faculty members with demonstrated leadership potential who can make significant contributions on their campuses and in their communities. A group of external evaluators selected this new cohort. Throughout their tenure Mellon PFLs are paired with a PFL at another institution to encourage peer collaboration.   
 
Project Pericles thanks The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and The Eugene M. Lang Foundation for their support of this program.  
 
Mellon PFLs in the Humanities, Courses, and Community Partners (Cohort III):  
· Allegheny College, Julia Ludewig and Kerstin Ams, Assistant Professor of German; Campus Garden Manager, Course: From German Environmentalism to Local Civic Action 
Community Partner: Meadville City Council 

· Bates College, Anelise Hanson Shrout, Assistant Professor of Digital and Computational Studies, Course: Public History in the Digital Age 
Community Partner: Androscoggin Historical Society 

· Bethune Cookman University, Dorcas McCoy, Associate Professor of International Studies and Political Science, Course: Political Theory 
Community Partner: Equal Ground 

· Drew University, Jens Lloyd, Assistant Teaching Professor and Director of First-Year Writing, Course: Community Literacy and Public Rhetoric in the Archives 
Community Partner: Cornerstone Family Programs & Morristown Neighborhood House 

· Elon University, Federico (Fede) Pous, Associate Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies, Course: Political Displacements: Migration, Climate Justice, and Human Rights in Latin America and the U.S. 
Community Partner: Witness for Peace Southeast (WFPSE) 

· Occidental College, Robert Eli Sanchez Jr., Associate Professor of Philosophy, Course: Latinx Philosophy 
Community Partner: Libros Schmibros  

· Reed College, Sarah Wagner-McCoy, Associate Professor of English and the Humanities, Course: American Pastoral: Literature and the Environment 
Community Partners: Reed Community Pantry; McDaniel High School Urban Farm Program (Portland Public Schools) 

· Skidmore College, Evan Mack and David Howson, Senior Teaching Professor of Music; Senior Teaching Professor and Arthur Zankel Executive Director of Arts Administration, Course: Save the Music: Civic Engagement and Program Building in Rural Public Schools 
Community Partners: We Are Instrumental; The Ticonderoga Festival Guild; The CEF library system 

· Swarthmore College, Paloma Checa-Gismero, Assistant Professor of Art History, Course: Socially Engaged in Art in the Americas 
Community Partners: The Village of the Arts and the Humanities; The Philadelphia Folklore Project 

· Wagner College, Denise Gasalberti, Associate Professor of Gender Studies, Course: Human Sexuality Community Partner: Birth Haven