Housing, Health, and Hands-On Learning
Dr. Elisaveta Petkova’s Housing and Health course at Drew University connected public health with community-engaged learning. Partnering with local nonprofits, students conducted interviews, analyzed housing data, and created outreach materials while exploring links between housing, health, and justice. The course fostered civic engagement, professional skills, and socially responsible leadership.
Fostering Civic Trust and Resilience: Sanda Balaban’s Visit to Elon and the PACE Conference
Executive Director Sanda Balaban visited Elon University to engage Periclean Scholars and campus leaders in conversations on civic identity, trust, and democratic resilience. She also presented at the North Carolina Campus Engagement PACE Conference, highlighting strategies to counter distrust, foster belonging, and strengthen higher education’s role in preparing engaged citizens.
From Streets to Screens: Collaborative Storytelling with East Side Freedom Library
Professor Dan Trudeau’s Qualitative Research Methods class at Macalester College partnered with East Side Freedom Library to create a public StoryMap digital walking tour. Through neighborhood visits and collaboration with local stakeholders, students deepened their engagement with community history, reciprocity, and solidarity—transforming how they viewed group work and civic partnerships.
Bringing History to Life with Hands-On Archival Research
Professor Michelle Chase’s Modern Latin America course at Pace University partnered with NACLA to give students hands-on archival research experience. Students digitized historic photographs, created photo essays, and connected Cold War history to contemporary issues of migration and U.S. foreign policy, with their work later featured on NACLA’s website and podcast.
The February Periclean (2025)
This month’s Periclean highlights our sessions at the AAC&U Annual Meeting, new Back to School for Democracy mini-grants engaging campuses nationwide, and the launch of our weekly Faculty in Focus series on LinkedIn. Applications are now open for Civic Engagement Mini-Grants and the Back to School for Democracy Collaborative Fellowship.
From Presentations to Partnerships: Project Pericles at AAC&U
At the AAC&U Annual Meeting, Project Pericles presented sessions on rebuilding trust through democratic engagement and strengthening communities through curricular partnerships. With Periclean colleagues, civic partners, and board members, we highlighted innovative practices that reaffirm higher education’s public mission, nurture student civic identities, and strengthen networks dedicated to advancing democracy.
Teaching Beyond the Classroom: Civic Education and Deliberative Dialogue in TESOL
Dr. Shayla Roberts, Assistant Professor at Bethune-Cookman University, integrated deliberative dialogue into her Principles & Issues in ESOL course to connect teaching with civic engagement. Through reflective assignments and class discussions, students explored the link between educational policy and voting, strengthening their civic awareness and preparing to empower future generations of informed, engaged citizens.