Civic Engagement and Conversation

Audience: Faculty

In this 90-minute, interactive workshop, which will be facilitated by Nicole M. Merola (Director, Teaching & Learning Lab & Professor of Environmental Humanities & American Literatures), faculty will have the opportunity to talk with each other about challenges they face guiding students through difficult moments in the classroom/studio. Strategies such as community agreements, the LARA method, and the PALs method will be introduced. Given the timing of this workshop and the interest of participants, we may focus on teaching and learning in a post-election period. 

MORE INFO

Audience: RISD community

The Fleet Library and Center for Community Partnerships welcome The Womxn Project Education Fund. The Womxn Project will present its Empowered to Advocate series. Gender-diverse activists will lead the series, through which they describe how citizens can engage with local governments to show their support for public policies, including trans, nonbinary and gender-diverse people in their local communities.

Artivism is Strategic.

Creative. Education. Expression. Disruption. For everyone.

The Womxn Project Education Fund uses ARTIVISM—strategic arts-based action, education, expression, and disruption—TO BUILD A MORE JUST AND EQUITABLE RHODE ISLAND.

Audience: Faculty and staff

Centered around the psychology of peace and violence, this event invites faculty and staff to join Johanna Vollhardt of Clark University for an open dialogue around navigating the complexities of the war in Gaza. The conversation will cover a range of topics, from Palestine solidarity and the Palestinian BDS movement to the pluralistic history of Jewish political thought and activism, contextualized within Vollhardt's expertise and research on the psychology of collective victimization and resistance to repression and violence. The discussion will be introduced by Provost Touba Ghadessi and moderated by Jennifer Prewitt-Freilino, associate professor of Psychology and department head of History, Philosophy and the Social Sciences. 

Audience: RISD community

The documentary No Time To Fail (2022) gives voice to the experiences of local election administrators, a largely invisible yet indispensable workforce, as they work around the clock to secure the vote for their community during the 2020 presidential election. Watch the trailer.

Following the screening, a panel discussion with Gregg M. Amore (Rhode Island secretary of state), Rob Rock (RI deputy secretary of state and the former director of elections for the RI Department of State), Kathy Placencia (RI Department of State’s current director of elections and former administrator of elections, City of Providence) and film co-director Margo Guernsey will further explore this critical time in our country’s relationship with election management. This conversation will be moderated by Professor Andrew Robarts of RISD’s History, Philosophy and the Social Sciences department.

This program is presented in collaboration with the Rhode Island Department of State, RISD's Center for Community Partnerships, and the RISD Museum. Pre-registration is requested. Doors open at 5:45 pm.

Audience: Faculty

By their nature, campaigns and elections emphasize differences of ideology and opinion. This faculty workshop will offer examples of key classroom practices for fostering inclusive discourse about the polarization of the current moment—from understanding political processes and histories to negotiating conflicts of belief and opinion.

Audience: Students

As part of National Voter Education week, grab a 2024 RISD Votes T-shirt, designed by Grace Liu 26 GD. Tie-dying and other decorating supplies, as well as food, will be available on RISD Beach.

Audience: RISD Community

We will be gathering as a community to recognize loss and grief that our world has experienced.

This interactive workshop takes participants on a journey alongside people of Jerusalem. It is guided by Riman Barakat and Karen Brunwasser, representatives of FeelBeit, a group of Israelis and Palestinians who create art and music to bridge divides in Jerusalem. 

This interactive workshop takes participants on a journey alongside people of Jerusalem. It is guided by Riman Barakat and Karen Brunwasser, representatives of FeelBeit, a group of Israelis and Palestinians who create art and music to bridge divides in Jerusalem. 

Audience: Faculty

By their nature, campaigns and elections emphasize differences of ideology and opinion. This faculty workshop will offer examples of key classroom practices for fostering inclusive discourse about the polarization of the current moment—from understanding political processes and histories to negotiating conflicts of belief and opinion.

Audience: RISD community

Since the first National Voter Registration Day in 2012, more than five million people have registered to vote in the United States’ largest single-day registration drive. However, as many as one in five eligible US citizens are not registered to vote. Let’s change this together at RISD’s campus-wide National Voter Registration Day event.

Audience: RISD community

September 17 is Constitution Day and Citizenship Day, commemorating the anniversary of the 1877 signing of the United States Constitution. Join RISD general counsel to hear about how the Constitution and its amendments continue to shape our country.

Sept. 24, 25, 26 and Oct. 1, 2, 3, 9

The Unify Challenge College Bowl is a virtual intercollegiate event that pairs thousands of students to hold one-on-one conversations across differences. In these conversations, participants share their points of view, find common ground and discover they can engage in respectful conversation without conflict.

More details about the Unify Challenge

Held annually during the first week of October, National Voter Education Week (NVEM) lets voters locate their polling place, understand their ballot, make a voting plan and help inspire civic action in their communities.

nationalvotereducationweek.org

A nonpartisan effort driven by organizations and individuals across public and private sectors, Vote Early Day helps ensure that all Americans have the tools to take part in early voting.

voteearlyday.org

Taking place the day before Election Day, this national event recognizes the contributions of the individuals who help ensure safe, secure voting experiences across the US.

electionheroday.org