FRPG 187M Global Questions, Local Activism
Fall 2010
St. Lawrence University

Course Description
Activists are people who seek to transform dominant social structures and create a more just world through collective action.   Recently, the Dropping Knowledge project (www.droppingknowledge.org) posed one hundred questions to a group of one hundred and twelve leading thinkers from around the world in a project called The Table of Free Voices.  These questions, such as “Should we have the right to choose where we live?” and “Is there an ecological limit to economic growth?”, connect directly with the concerns of activists from all walks of life.  In this course, we explored the transformations from which activists emerge and the transformations they seek to foster. With the Table of Free Voices as a portal, students engaged in their own activist work while examining the relationships among activists, their questions, and the social movements in which they participate.  Along the way we read about past and current struggles to address racism, sexism, militarism, economic inequality, environmental degradation, and other forms of injustice that continue to make the need for intelligent, creative activism so pressing.

More information about the First Year Program at St. Lawrence University can be found here.