The Social Justice Institute (SJI) invites undergraduate freshman, sophomores, and juniors to apply to the Social Justice Scholars (SJS) reading group.
In Fall 2022, the group's focus will center on a more complete account of American history and how science is defined. We will read and discuss two books together: Clint Smith's How the Word is Passed and Max Liboiron's Pollution is Colonialism.
- How the Word is Passed seeks out America's troubling history of white supremacy to understand the stories America tells itself about who we are through what is remembered. The aegis of the book is this: Smith traveled "to eight places in the United States as well as one abroad to understand how each reckons with its relationship to the history of American slavery."
- Pollution Is Colonialism presents a framework for understanding scientific research methods as practices that can align with or against colonialism. Even when researchers are working toward benevolent goals, environmental science and activism are often premised on a colonial worldview and access to land. Focusing on plastic pollution, the book models an anticolonial scientific practice aligned with Indigenous, particularly Métis, concepts of land, ethics, and relations. ()
The five Fall 2022 sessions will be held from 12:30-2:00 pm on:
Friday, September 9 | Friday, September 23 | Friday, October 14
Friday, October 28 | Friday, November 18
Selected participants will receive two books and any subsequent readings, and will receive a $250 stipend for their full participation over the fall semester. Participants agree to be responsible for reading all of the assigned materials, and must attend five planning and discussion sessions. Students can apply for continuing as a Social Justice Scholar in the Spring semester (with an additional stipend), which will build on the Fall semester learning.
The application period for Fall 2022 is now closed. Check back in late October 2022 for the Spring 2023 application!