Community Engaged Scholarship

American Cultures Engaged Scholarship Program (ACES)

Antiracism Pedagogy & Equity-Based Learning Winter Institute

Event Description

Since 2018, the CDF program has supported instructors in developing creative design assignments, assignments that are intentionally built to support faculty and students in ways that are adaptive, equity-oriented, and foster antiracism. In the CDF Winter Institute participants developed actionable strategies that build antiracist and equity-based education.

In conversation with CDF faculty, staff, and students, the Winter Institute discussed how within the current condition of remote instruction and the devastating effects of the...

Spotlight on AC Courses

The AC Course spotlight series is an opportunity for faculty members to discuss how their classes bring their research interests with community partners together to teach undergraduates. If you are interested in featuring your class for an AC course spotlight, please email americancultures@berkeley.edu.

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...

'FIRE,' Anthropology C12AC/ESPM C22AC

FIRE: Past, Present and Future Interactions with the People and Ecosystems of California

Description:
Most Californians today fear catastrophic wild-land fires that each year scorch millions of acres of land, cost hundreds of millions of dollars to fight, and destroy human lives and property. Yet people have not always lived in dread of conflagrations. This class emphasizes how our interactions with wildfires in California have changed dramatically over the centuries, and that there is much that can be learned from earlier fire management strategies—...

Anthropology

Anthropology 2AC - 'Introduction to Archaeology'

Instructor: Jun Sunseri
Semester: Fall 2014 - Spring 2016

In Professor Jun Sunseri's ACES Course, Anthropology 2AC, 'Introduction to Archaeology,' students learn about the methods, goals, and theoretical concepts of archaeology by closely examining the impact of archaeology on and the history of the construction of various communities: the Native Americans, Latin Americans, and Euro-Americans. This course also explores professional and ethical problems affecting the practice of...

ACES Courses

About

ACES courses represent corners of campus that highlights the intent of the AC requirement, while also deepening the meaning of that intent through a combination of multi-disciplinary research and praxis, the development of students and community partners as co-educators, mentoring opportunities, and increased and sustained accessibility of information.

To learn about projects developed with ACES community partners, please visit the...

AC Podcast Series

About the AC Podcast

The AC Podcast was developed so that students, faculty, and community partners could share their experiences in American Cultures courses. If you are interested in participating in a podcast, please contact the American Cultures Center.

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...

Social Movements, Urban Histories, and the Politics of Memory

This spotlight feature includes American Cultures Engaged Scholarship faculty member Dr. Sean Burns's course "Social Movements, Urban History, and the Politics of Memory" (IAS 158AC / PACS 148 AC). This course examines the extensive multi-racial social movement history of the San Francisco Bay Area. The primary assignment of the course is a student-defined research project where students, in collaboration with local activists and community partner Shaping San Francisco, carry out original research and writing...