Community Engaged Scholarship

American Cultures Engaged Scholarship Program (ACES)

Cohort Participants & Facilitators

Cohort Participants Emily Cook

Emily is a Ph.D. candidate in environmental engineering, working under Lisa Alvarez-Cohen in collaboration with David Sedlak. Emily researches methods to remediate groundwater contaminated with per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a group of highly fluorinated, persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic compounds. Beyond her interest in and passion for environmental microbiology, water chemistry, sustainability, and engineering as a form of stewardship, Emily is highly motivated to build communities within...

The ACES Graduate Student Learning Community

ACES Community Projects

About

The American Cultures Engaged Scholarship (ACES) Program offers 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.

The following are a collection of our growing ACES course offerings and previous student projects from these community-learning classes.

English

Instructor: Amy Lee English 31AC

 In Amy Lee’s English 31AC course on Climate Change fictions, students studied how contemporary literature shapes the way we view and understand climate change, narrates its impacts, and envisions the future. Students interned at two organizations, HEAL Food Alliance and the West Oakland Indicators Project (WOEIP). At their internships, students examined the ways in which race, gender, and class structures distribute the effects of climate change unevenly across communities. At HEAL, they developed popular education...

Geography

Instructor: Seth Lunine
Semester: Fall 2016

During the Fall of 2016, students with the UC Berkeley ACES program worked with artist and anti-displacement organizer, Leslie Dreyer, in conjunction with the...

ACES Community Partnerships

Since, January 2011, the American Cultures Engaged Scholars (ACES) Program has collaborated with over 50 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.

The ACES program appreciates the varied experience made possible by the participation of Community Partners, as differences among our Community Partners is what makes possible such diverse opportunities...

Aspirations of Antiracist Pedagogy: Community-Based Learning

Resource Page Summary

On April 10, 2024, the American Cultures Engaged Scholarship (ACES) Program held a Spring institute, titled “Aspirations of Antiracist Pedagogy: Community-Based Learning.” This page specifically discusses the lunch portion of the event where guest speaker Dr. Brandi Thompson Summers, from the Department of Geography at UC Berkeley, shared her expertise on community-based learning. Dr. Summers shared valuable insights on the opportunities this style of learning presents and the challenges it poses. She also discussed how to implement antiracist pedagogy...

The Problem(s) with Grading: Making a Case for Contract Grading

Event Description

Building on the groundwork of the Antiracism Winter Institute, the CDF Program co-sponsored and co-facilitated a follow-up seminar in late April centered on contract grading. The two-day workshop, The Problem(s) with Grading: Making a Case for Contract Grading, invited participants to explore two models of contract grading, Specifications Grading and Labor-based Contract Grading. On the first day, participants engaged in current research that explores how traditional grading methods structure...

Press Releases

Press Releases

Throughout its decades as the campus's signature curriculum, the American Cultures Requirement has been featured in numerous publications including the the East Bay Express, the Daily Californian, the Berkeley News Center, and the California Report.

Berkeleyan/Berkeley News Center:

Five Years of American Cultures, October 1996

Sociologist Troy Duster Appointed...

Nutritional Sciences & Toxicology

Nutritional Sciences W104AC 'Food, Culture, and the Environment'

Instructor: Kristen Rasmussen
ACES Fellow: Claire Larkins
Semester: Summer 2024

Nutritional Sciences W104AC, "Food, Culture, and the Environment," broadly addressed the historical, ecological, socioeconomic, biological, political, and cultural environments impacting the human diet in addition to nutrition problems, programs, and consumer protection. A...