Fourth Biennial Meeting--October 24-27, 2002
Dear Colleagues:
In this most tumultuous and unsettling time during which
the world is being remapped and emotional interiors buffeted,
we have chosen a Diversity and Learning conference theme that
looks beyond the fractures of our current world to imagine
the outlines of an education for a world lived in common.
We ask what higher education can do to bring us together in
both local and global communities. We ask what learning will
look like when it is based on a shared commitment to deliberate,
thoughtful, and sustained investigations of our differences.
What better location than St. Louis to explore the many-layered
interactions between people and place? Located as it is on
the American crossroads between east and west and north and
south, it is emblematic of the convergence of cultures marking
today’s glob-alized societies. Built on the site of ancient
Indian civilizations, St. Louis reminds us of the layered
archeology of history so crit-ical to investigate if we are
to understand origins and alter-ations. Standing at the center
of national debates and failed com-promises over slavery,
it cautions that unresolved legacies of racism and inequality
threaten the stability of democracies worldwide. A port city
on a great waterway, it represents the dynamic interchange
of peoples, com-modities, and cultures.
What kinds of education, then, can prepare students to be
socially respon-sible and informed citizens within their own
changing nation and throughout a transforming world? Such
a question demands critical appraisal of our own under-standings
of — and commitments to — democratic practices and principles.
How would such an appraisal change our thinking about forms
of pedagogy? What standards and values would we use to measure
individual behavior? What principles should guide partnerships
between the academy and outside communities? How do we measure
democratic progress? Diversity and Learning will showcase
ways in which this kind of thinking is emerging on campuses
and communities from all parts of the country.
John Dewey argued that education should prepare students
for “associated living” and Mary Louise Pratt asked that we
learn how to move from the comfort zone into the contact zone.
How do we progress toward these goals in the face of what
sometimes feels like irreconcilable differences — at home
and abroad? And how can we encourage students to believe that
they can create societies char-acterized by equality and honored
for learning and justice?
Our lives and our very futures depend upon our creative
responses to these daunt-ing challenges. Please join us in
St. Louis in October to grapple with our roles as edu-cators
in this urgent work.
— Caryn McTighe Musil, Vice President
Diversity, Equity, and Global Initiatives
Supported in part with funding from The Ford Foundation.
If you have questions, please e-mail us at meetings@aacu.org.
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