Community Engaged Scholarship

American Cultures Engaged Scholarship Program (ACES)

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...

ACES Program Grants

About the ACES Program

Launched in January 2010 as a partnership between the American Cultures Center and the Public Service Center, the American Cultures Engaged Scholarship (ACES) 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.

ACES Course Grants are...

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.

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...

Asian American Studies

Asian American Studies 132AC - 'Islamophobia and Constructing Otherness'

Instructor: Hatem Bazian
Semester: Spring 2015 - Spring 2018

Dr. Hatem Bazian's Asian American Studies 132AC ACES Course, 'Islamophobia and Constructing Otherness, ' was designed to help students understand and combat institutionalized racism, focusing on Islamophobia, its origins and progression, and the principle of "otherness": accepting and recognizing differences in others.

As part of the engaged scholarship...

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...