Learning in a Time of Politics: Liberal Arts Education and Political Engagement
The Eighth Annual Conversation on the Liberal Arts
February 15-16, 2008
Conversation Overview
It’s a political season. The presidential campaign is in full swing. The need for well-informed, discerning political engagement is acute. But all too often instead of information we get sound bites, instead of analysis of issues we get coverage of the campaign horse race, instead of deliberation we get debates, instead of critique we get attack. The fairness of our sources of information is doubted in every direction. Analyses of issues are everywhere assumed to be tainted by political prejudice.
There is nothing new or surprising about this political climate. But it does present a serious challenge to a central goal of a liberal arts education—to help students become engaged and thoughtful participants in our political life. Some students turn off, regarding the political realm as a swamp of self-interest masquerading as public good. Others engage passionately, but at times simplistically, carving the political landscape into realms of good and evil, and failing to bring their critical skills to the claims of friend and foe alike.
Our task will be to learn from each other how best to help students become critical, informed, and engaged participants in our shared political life. We’ll consider classroom strategies and extra curricular programs as well as broader questions of campus climate and how academic institutions are themselves political agents.
Harvard historian of education Julie Reuben will serve as catalyst for our conversations. Professor Reuben has done outstanding work in the relationship between educational institutions and American political life. Her contributions will offer us concrete examples of efforts to educate for citizenship: what has motivated those efforts, what assumptions and values have undergirded them, and what their results have been. In addition to the three plenary sessions led by Professor Reuben, we will also have ample opportunity for discussions on campus-wide programs and classroom strategies that foster fruitful political engagement.
This gathering is by no means for political scientists alone, though they will certainly have much to offer. The complexity of issues facing our society means that all our disciplines play a role in cultivating critical and informed political engagement. In order that our conversations have maximal impact back on our campuses we invite each institution to send a team including an academic administrator and a faculty member.
Nor is this gathering just for liberal arts colleges. Liberal arts education happens in many institutional settings. Indeed, central to our Conversations on the Liberal Arts is promoting dialog across what are often barriers in the academic landscape. The experience of a wide range of institutions—four-year colleges, research universities, and comprehensive universities, public and private institutions, and secular and faith-based institutions—enriches us all.
In coming weeks be looking for more details on the program and on registering for the conference. In the meantime mark your calendar for Presidents Weekend, 2008, Friday and Saturday, February 15 - 16. If you yourself can’t get away, encourage a colleague who can profit from—and contribute to—our program. Santa Barbara can be a beautiful escape in late winter, and our time together should provide rich resources for strengthening our work as liberal arts educators. We look forward to seeing you in February.