About
The Social Justice Innovation Lab is cross-disciplinary class that offers a rigorous, project-based introduction to social justice organizing, activism and action-based research. Students work in small teams to develop and implement collaboratively defined social justice projects. As a class, we develop a sustained practice of research and inquiry to support our group projects, learning how to shape and pursue self-directed research agendas, and how to turn this research into a sustainable and achievable project that can make a meaningful social and political impact.
The Fall 2018 service-learning partner for the course is the Richmond Legal Aid Justice Center's Civil Rights & Racial Justice Program.
Goals
- Understand the relationship between social power and social inequality
- Understand the history and contemporary context of social justice organizing
- Develop and demonstrate public skills, strategies, and techniques of social justice organizing
- Critically reflect and act on the role and responsibility of individuals and groups in organizing and creating social change
Students Projects
The students in the course wanted to know why more students on campus weren't involved in organizing and social justice work. Were they knowledgeable about the issues going on in their communities? Did they have the skills to effect change? What would help them get more involved? We conducted a survey to get a wide cross-section of students. To get more detail, a series of mini-interviews were conducted to see how students at VCU though about social justice and organizing.
One of the issues that arose from our conversations was that most students believed that the main way to be involved was by going to protests- and many felt uncomfortable doing so. In order to broaden students understanding of social justice organizing, the students in the course created and led a direct action training on campus. At the event, we envisioned what our ideal communities would look like, discussed different forms of social action that can be used to create change, and practiced skills that could be used in organizing work.
The students in the course also felt it was important to share their understanding of inequality with the campus and broader community. To that end, they created the racial justice syllabus. The goal was to create a series of readings that were accessible (in terms of cost, language, and time commitment) to the average college student. Homework and extra credit assignments in the syllabus challenge students to talk about these issues with friends and family or become active in their own communitites.