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The American Cultures Center

  • About
    • Our About page has resources and videos that discuss the history and intent of the AC requirement. Our Spotlight page features some AC faculty discussing the AC courses that they teach. 

      • Overview
      • AC Podcast
      • AC 30th Timeline
      • History of AC
      • AC Anniversaries
      • Past Events
      • Video Library
      • Press Releases
      • Publications
      • Reports
      • Newsletter
      • Curriculum Snapshot
      • Contact Us
      • Staff as Students of Social Justice
  • Students
    • Hey Students! Take advantage of our programming by taking courses offered across campus, being a member of our Student Advisory Board or applying for the Student Prize for projects you have developed in your AC courses.

      • Overview
      • Courses
      • FAQs
      • Spotlight Videos on AC Courses
      • Student Prize
      • How to Satisfy the AC Requirement
      • Student Advisory Board
      • Community Student Projects
      • Student Projects
  • Advisors
  • Faculty
    • The American Cultures Center is proud to offer faculty exciting opportunities such as the possibility to receive a grant to continue, or create an American Cultures course, be awarded for excellence in teaching, and even become a Chancellor's Public Scholar! 

      • Overview
      • Teaching Resources
      • Course Development
      • Faculty Grants
      • Library Support
      • Teaching Awards
      • Teaching in Summer Workshop Series
      • Teaching with Wikipedia
  • Community Engagement
    • The American Cultures Engaged Scholarship (ACES) Program provides opportunities for students, faculty and community organizations to collaborate on cutting edge research projects associated with some of the nation's most pressing social issues. 

      • Overview
      • ACES Courses
      • Community Partnerships
      • ACES Student Projects
      • Student Guide for Community Organizing
      • The ACES Graduate Learning Community
  • Teaching in Troubled Times
    • UC Berkeley Faculty Panel from the Sick and Tired Workshop

      Teaching in Troubled Times is a series of timely dialogues elevating some of the most pressing social and political questions that enter our lives and our classrooms that have fermented vibrant discussion and delivered ‘on-the-ground’ tools to support our students’ complex lives.

      • Overview
      • Back Together: What Did We Learn that We Don’t Want to Lose?
      • Understanding UC Berkeley Students and their Experiences
      • Difficult Knowledge, Trauma Informed Pedagogy and Safe-ish Spaces
      • How to Have Political Conversations in Class
      • Addressing Food Insecurity and Basic Needs Among UC Students: What Can Berkeley do?
      • Between Censure and Good Sense: Trigger Warnings and Safe Space in the Classroom
      • Economic Pressures Facing Berkeley Students
      • Inviting Students to Bring Themselves to Class
      • Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired: Dealing with Toxic Stresses on Campus and in our Classrooms
      • What to Do If ICE Comes to Campus
      • Whose Classroom? The Generative Potential of Conflict in Higher Education
      • Assignment Design for Social Justice Education
      • More Than Words: In Conversation with the Language of Racial and Social Justice-Making
      • Beyond Accommodation: Changing the Disability Frame
      • Community Reflections During COVID-19
      • Researching/Teaching in Troubled Times
  • Creative Discovery Fellows
    • The Creative Discovery Fellows program fills a critical gap on our campus, by helping instructors incorporate digital tools into the curriculum and supporting students to use them effectively, in ways that are personally meaningful and also serve the public good.

      • Overview
      • About the Program
      • Creative Project Support
      • Faculty Spotlights
      • Featured Student Projects
      • Research and Evaluation
      • Resources
      • The Problem(s) with Grading: Making a Case for Contract Grading - Spring 2021 Institute
      • Case Studies
      • Creative Projects as Political Possibility
      • Antiracism Pedagogy & Equity Based Learning Winter Institute

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Introduction to the ACES Program

Community Engagement

  • ACES Courses
  • Community Partnerships
  • ACES Student Projects
  • Student Guide for Community Organizing
  • The ACES Graduate Learning Community

Topics

  • Community Engaged Scholarship topic page
  • Course Development topic page
  • Faculty Grant topic page
  • Teaching in Troubled Times topic page
  • Videos topic page

About the ACES Program

Launched in January 2010, the American Cultures Engaged Scholarship (ACES) Program developed as a partnership between the American Cultures Center and the Public Service Center (http://publicservice.berkeley.edu(link is external)). This program aims to transform how faculty’s community-engaged scholarship is valued, to enhance learning for students through a combination of teaching and practice, and to create new knowledge that has an impact both in the community and the academy.
Today, ACES courses continue to be developed, providing opportunities for students to participate in collaborative projects with community partners, engage in experiential learning, create meaningful collaborative research environments with partners outside of the university, support reflective engagement on broad social issues and interests, and explore the possibilities and challenges of collaborative scholarship for both community partners and academic communities.

Publications on the ACES Program

Catalysts for Change, a case study report on:

- The ACES Program 

- ACES Course, College Writing Programs 50AC/150AC, "Researching Water in the West."

ACES courses work with community organizations building student and faculty research into...environmental justice, prison abolition, Indigenous movements... and social justice.
Gibor Basri, first Vice Chancellor for Equity & Inclusion

2022 Spring and Summer ACES Program

2022 Spring and Summer ACES Program Grant

AC Engaged Scholarship (ACES) Course Development Funds are now available for spring or summer 2022 courses. Please email aces@berkeley.edu if you are seeking funds to for an ACES partnership or for an ACES Fellow to support your class and partnerships.

Undergraduate Student Opportunities

ACES Courses

ACES courses transform how faculty’s community-engaged scholarship is valued, to enhance learning for students through a combination of teaching and practice, and to create new knowledge that has an impact both in the community and the academy. To see a list of ACES courses being offered this semester, please visit our ACES Courses page.

ACES Student Community Projects

ACES courses offer students and faculty the opportunity to work with community organizations to develop cutting edge research projects associated with some of the nation's most pressing social issues. To see examples of projects that students have developed in ACES courses with community partners, please visit our Student Community Projects page.

Graduate Student Opportunities

ACES Graduate Learning Community

In 2019, the ACES Program launched a learning community for graduate scholar-activists, a learning community that comprises workshops that discuss community engagement and scholar-activism and the opportunity for graduate students to build community together while exploring the importance of and connection between their academic studies, teaching, and research and their community relationships and social justice efforts.  Learn More.

Community Partnership Opportunities

Community Partners

Since January 2010, the ACES Program has collaborated with over 60 community partners to offer students opportunities to learn about histories of oppression, racism and social justice in the U.S., by engaging with community organizations and experts on these very issues as part of their AC class and the university's public mission.Read More

Artist In Residence (AIR)

The ACES program appoints an Artist-in-Residence for ACES to work with Berkeley faculty, fellows, community partners, and students, in the integration of new media supporting the courses and collaborative relationships that constitute the engaged scholarship program of the AC Center.  Learn more.

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The American Cultures Center
360 Stephens Hall, MC #1050 
Berkeley, CA 94720-1050

  • Phone: (510) 664-7065
  • americancultures@berkeley.edu

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