A yearlong Activist-in-Residence pilot program, which began this fall, will bring a variety of activists to campus for periods of time ranging from a few days to a semester. The program seeks to expose Brown students to people who have dedicated their lives to social change.
Bolstered by a $25,000 grant from the Office of the President, the program - organized by the Swearer Center for Public Service, the Urban Studies Program and the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America - will allow students to form stronger relationships with activists than are possible when activists are only on campus for one event, according to the program's organizers.
"Speakers who come (for a short period) - it's like a flash," said Alan Flam P'05, senior associate University chaplain and senior fellow at the Swearer Center. "Having much greater access could be beneficial to (the students') learning."
The first Activist in Residence, documentary filmmaker Claire Andrade-Watkins, was at Brown from Nov. 13 to Nov. 15. Watkins screened her film "Some Kind of Funny Porto Rican," which describes the displacement of the Cape Verdean Community from Fox Point, a neighborhood that borders College Hill.
Associate Professor of American Civilization Matthew Garcia, one of the program's organizers, said it will "create a dialogue between the community and academia."
Garcia said President Ruth Simmons, who proposed the program, gave its organizers the freedom to decide what kind of activists to bring to campus. Though the faculty currently chooses the activists, Garcia said he hopes that in the future, students "will make contributions by saying what they want."
The details of the program are not yet concrete, and organizers plan to test different models to see what works best at Brown, said Keally Dewitt, community program director at the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America. Activists will be drawn both from Providence as well as from across the country and international locations, Dewitt said.
One way in which activists will be integrated into the University community is through classes such as ET 107: "Strategy, Tactics, and Tools for Social Change," a new class taught by Flam and Professor of History Evelyn Hu-Dehart. Activists will visit the class and share their experiences with students, Flam said.
The Activist-in-Residence program is currently used by professors to supplement subject material covered in their classes. Garcia required students from his classes, ET 50: "Introduction to American/Ethnic Studies" and ET 9: "Living for Change: Movements of Social Justice," to attend Watkins' screening.
Robert Smith '09, who is in ET 50 and attended the screening, said there was a "really good turnout there." Smith said there were also many local Cape Verdeans at the event.
Though he was required to attend the event, Smith said he enjoyed the film. "I'm definitely interested in that kind of thing," he said.
Smith said an interest in activism was "definitely one of the reasons I came to Brown," but added that he was initially disappointed by activism on campus last year, describing the on-campus climate as largely apathetic.
Students said they were excited about the program but had some reservations about its scope. A member of the Coalition for Police Accountability and Institutional Transparency, Smith said he has doubts about how significantly the program will affect on-campus issues because he does not think the University will bring activists to address controversial topics like police brutality.
Smith also said the program will probably have a greater effect on students already interested in activism. But having highly active, well-trained student activists will ultimately draw more students into activism, he said.
"Freshmen see highly organized groups and they'll join them," he said.
