Fall 2009 Course Relevant Center for Ethics Programming
Exploring Space and Place in Downtown Allentown
Community Tour Exchange, PART ONE (Community hosts)
Community leaders from downtown wards will guide students, faculty, staff, and interested community members on an exploration of urban space in Allentown. Participants will have the opportunity to learn about the history of the community, the everyday experiences of community members, and the institutions that are bounded by the city. Tours will provide opportunities to ask questions such as: How does space delineate, define, and shape different communities? Who are the architects and what are the institutional hallmarks of community boundaries in Allentown? What are the political, social, and economic implications of the organization of urban space in Allentown?
Tour times:
* Friday September 11, 4:30 pm – 7:00 pm, including dinner with tour participants
* Saturday September 12, 11:00 am – 1:30 pm, including lunch with tour participants
* Please Note: Space is limited. Participants must sign up in advance. Please contact Leanne Hill at lhill@muhlenberg.edu or 484-664-3657 to register for a tour.
Participants are expected to attend Part I and Part II.
Exploring Space and Place on Our Campus
Community Tour Exchange, PART II (Muhlenberg hosts)
Muhlenberg students, faculty, and staff will host the community leaders who gave them tours (and interested others) for an investigation of Muhlenberg’s space on campus and in the West End of Allentown. Students will share some of the history of the college, a perspective on the surrounding neighborhood and perspective on their own campus/classroom experiences. The tour will provide opportunities to ask questions such as: What places are comfortable/uncomfortable for students on campus and why? What space is accessible to the broader community? How do students explore the surrounding neighborhood? Does exploration of space change as students move through their years at Muhlenberg? What is the student/community perception of campus and the surrounding neighborhood? Who creates boundaries on campus? Who defines space and what are the invisible barriers of campus?
Tour time: Thursday, October 1, 4:00 pm – 6:30 pm, including dinner with tour participants
* Please Note: This is the second part of a two-part Community Exchange.
A public lecture by Mindy Thompson Fullilove, Author of Root Shock:
How Tearing Up City Neighborhoods Hurts America, and What We Can Do About It
Co-Sponsored by the Public Health Program
How do race and class affect patterns of health and well-being? How do the spaces and communities we inhabit influence our health? And how do these issues play out in America’s cities? Mindy Thompson Fullilove studies urban renewal and its largely negative effects on African-American communities across America. Her talk will focus on her continuing quest to explore the connections among race, class, urban displacement, and health in America. Reception to follow event.
Mindy Fullilove is a research psychiatrist at New York State Psychiatric Institute and a professor of clinical psychiatry and public health at Columbia University. She is the author of Root Shock: How Tearing Up City Neighborhoods Hurts America and What We Can Do About It (2004), and The House of Joshua: Meditations on Family and Place(1999). She is co-author of Ernest Thompson's Homeboy Came to Orange: A Story of People's Power (1976) and Rodrick Wallace's Collective Consciousness and Its Discontents (2008). For more information, please visit: http://asp.cumc.columbia.edu/facdb/profile_list.asp?uni=mf29&DepAffil=Psychiatry
Date/Time: Wednesday, October 28, 7:00pm; Miller Forum, Moyer Hall
Geo-Politicized Space: Race, Representation & the 2010 Census: An Interdisciplinary Panel Discussion
Co-Sponsored by the Department of Political Science
In 2010, the United States will undertake its 23rd decennial census of our population. Much is at stake. The Census affects more than $300 billion per year in state and federal funding for local communities. Just as important, the Census is used to apportion seats in the US House of Representatives and to redistrict state legislators, ultimately shaping our electoral power as citizens and members of local communities. The Census informs the decisions of political leaders, determines school district assignment areas, defines legislative districts, and affects the representation of communities and groups in government. The Census, in short, is a snapshot of who we are as a nation, providing information that affects decisions ranging from the provision of services to the elderly; to the construction of new roads and schools; to the safeguarding of electoral competitiveness, voting rights, and representative democracy. In addition, following the 22nd Census, the 2010 Census will include a "multiracial" category in the counting and mapping of community populations across the nation, raising a host of questions about the political, legal, and ethical problems created by the uncertainty of counting and classifying multiracial individuals.
This multi-scholar panel of academic experts from a range of fields will discuss the implications of the 2010 Census with an emphasis on the affects of the Census and political apportionment on race and representation. How does the inclusion of a "multiracial" category in the US Census both reflect the fiction of exclusive racial categories and create new problems for safeguarding the civil rights of racial minority populations? How do political and partisan leaders attempt to draw district boundaries so as to maximize institutional and electoral power? How do new technologies make it possible for legislatures to "gerrymander" districts for partisan advantage? What is a "community of interest," and how are these communities determined by race, or by "natural" geographical boundaries? Are "majority-minority" districts a legitimate response to historical discrimination faced by African American and Latino communities, or do such districts give unfair preferences to one section of the population? How does the counting of the population and the drawing of district lines shape the political and racial landscape of minority and majority communities, and what are the ethical dilemmas raised in the drawing of these political boundaries?
Panelists include Peter Wagner, Executive Director of the Prison Policy Iniative; Bruce Cain, Professor of Political Science at the University of California--Berkeley; and Aitya Stokes-Brown, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Bucknell University
Date/Time: Wednesday, November 4, 7:00pm; Miller Forum, Moyer Hall
The St. Bernard Project- Displaced people in New Orleans – A Conversation with Liz McCartney
Co-Sponsored by Hillel and Hunger and Homeless Awareness Week
What happens when a natural disaster destroys entire communities? Who has access to rebuild and who doesn’t? How might people reclaim space and what space remains vacant? And how do you rebuild an entire community? The Katrina disaster in New Orleans and the city’s subsequent attempts to rebuild the city raise myriad questions about the intersections of public and private space, and the connections among space, race, and political power in urban America. In conjunction with National Hunger & Homelessness Awareness Week, Liz McCartney (CNN Hero 2008) will discuss the unique challenges faced by displaced people in southern Louisiana. Reception to follow event.
Liz came to St. Bernard Parish, New Orleans in 2006 to help the community in its rebuilding efforts. She continues to reside there, dedicating herself to helping others rebuild and move back into their homes. Website: http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/05/08/heroes.mccartney/index.html
Date/Time: Monday, November 16, 7:00pm; Miller Forum, Moyer Hall