Page 195 - Mike Ratner CC - WISR Complete Dissertation - v6

As the role of higher education continues to shift towards educating socially conscience

graduates willing to engage in their communities, activism and civic-dialogue are more important

than ever. The Western Institute for Social Research (WISR.edu) was founded in the 1970s on this

objective and has a rich history in civic education and outreach initiatives. However, for the

mission of WISR to be further actualized, I see the need to not only expose students to pressing

social issues that impact their communities, but also equip them to become themselves activist-

civic leaders. With this in mind, my goal is to set a standard of simple civic engagement that

students can adopt so that in future years a series of WISR sponsored Community Conversations

(CCs), Activist Expos and other forms of educational engagement can be developed and deployed.

A future vision for WISR sponsored CCs is to provide a space where students, faculty,

staff, and area residents could come together to learn, understand, and combat societal injustices

and civic issues affecting local, regional, and global communities. Careful attention would be paid

to each CC gathering in order to maximize participant dialogue. After attending various forms of

dialogue events across the US my hope is that WISR will stay away from the traditional static

presentation where a speaker shares their insight and leaves few the minutes for questioning at the

end. Rather, participants would invest quality time that engages a topic, sharing ideas, and

understanding differing viewpoints. This goal was evident for me in every element of the CC

format which will be described in this work. For example, themes for each WISR Community

Conversation would not simply list a general topic, but rather as I have learned in interviewing Ira

Shor “begin the session with a posed question” to the participant body and wider community.

Examples can be: “Does military spending affect our community?” “Does media impact our view

of the world?” “Where is social justice today in the East Bay?” and “How do women view

Trump?”.

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