Urban Activism, Certificate

Students will benefit from increasing their knowledge in Urban Activism. It is expected that students will: 

1. Students will delve deeply into the study and analysis of many of the issues raised in the introductory core courses such as urban education, immigration, housing, economics and social mobility, civil rights, environmental justice, the impact of technology, voting rights, and representation. 

2. Students will learn about these issues from an interdisciplinary and intersectional vantage point, paying close attention to issues of diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as interest convergence. 

3. Students will challenge commonly accepted ideologies and discourses about race, gender, class and other forms of inequality found in urban areas – supporting counternarratives – and will also be challenged to look at issues of urban and racially diverse communities from an asset-based perspective, paying attention to less commonly recognized forms of community wealth such as aspirational, linguistic, navigational, and resistant capital (Yosso, 2005).  

4. Students will consider different forms of urban activism, including the differences between charity and social justice, and between providing services to urban communities and creating the resources for sustained community empowerment.  Students will examine these issues from the perspective of different stakeholder groups, including indigenous perspectives found in urban areas near Widener University.