Taught By:
Elizabeth Talbert
Assistant Professor of Sociology
Anthropology and Sociology
Drake University
Read profile here.
Motivation to Teach Social Action:
I'm so excited to continue to develop my practice in community-engaged research and learning. I have quite a bit of experience working with undergraduate students in the community to do policy- and social justice-relevant research and dissemination, but know I could be a more effective professor and advocate if I had a framework from which to plan and execute collaborative student work. I will be teaching our department's new capstone course, "Seminar on Community Engagement," and know that the action-oriented model this Institute provides would be invaluable to our students and community.
Course Description:
The Senior Seminar on Community Engagement is a culmination of a student's study of their major, and provides an opportunity to apply knowledge and skills to a hands-on community-based project. The semester-long course, meeting as a seminar, asks students to propose, pursue, and complete an independent project in conjunction with a collegiate or local changemaker organization, to be negotiated in its detail with the faculty member, that will result in a completed product (report, fact sheet, podcast, etc.) and an oral presentation. The student project should draw on the practices of inquiry and analysis found in the coursework and reading common to the major area and reflect the student's academic experience in the major. The course will also present a model for social action and guide students in their work through this model.
