From Theory to (Progressive) Practice

by April Lidinsky

I just returned from my second academic conference of the summer, and was happy to see that once again, a strong conversational thread running through the panels was: How can we more effectively apply scholarly research and skills to making real, progressive change in the public sphere?

This approach to moving from the classroom to the community has always been central to women’s and gender studies classes, since the discipline was founded in the activist 1960s. Unlike other, older disciplines with "ivory tower" roots, women's studies has always been about doing your research, and then rolling up your sleeves and engaging with the community.

I thought of all this when reading a June 23, 2008 New York Times article, Big Paycheck or Service? Students Are Put to Test about the move some universities are making to encouraging their graduates to apply their educational training to public service, as opposed to Wall Street.

The ways educators are speaking with students on this issue resonates with the definitions of “Progressive” that have been floated on this blog. Here’s a bit from the NYTimes article:

In his commencement speech last month at Wesleyan University, Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, voiced a similar theme when he sounded an impassioned call to public service, and warned that the pursuit of narrow self-interest — “the big house and the nice suits and the other things that our money culture says you should buy ... betrays a poverty of ambition.”

Universities are so concerned about this issue that some — Amherst, Tufts, the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard, for example — have expanded public service fellowships and internships. “We’re in the business of graduating people who will make the world better in some way,” said Anthony Marx, Amherst’s president. “That’s what justifies the expense of the education.”

This year, Tufts announced that it would pay off college loans for graduates who chose public service jobs. And officials at Harvard, Penn, Amherst and a number of other colleges say one reason they have begun emphasizing grants instead of loans in financial aid is so students do not feel pressured by their debts to pursue lucrative careers.

Of course, one needn’t look only to Ivy League schools to see this movement in action. This past spring, one of the lively posters on this blog, Kathleen Petitjean, spoke with my Women and Sustainability class at IU South Bend about Green politics and public activism, and she inspired many conversations, and some new friendships, too. And like any public intellectual worth her salt in 2008, Kathleen blogged about it on her "If We Only Connect" site!

Could it be that South Bend is ahead of the curve on bridging scholarly and political activism? Maybe it’s just the beautiful June weather that’s buoying my optimism, but I'd say the answer is a sunny, blue-skied YES.