This project will launch the design and test-run of a four credit course entitled, “Social Justice Frameworks in Action”. The purpose of it is two-fold. First, it brings together faculty (and doctoral students) across disciplines in a mutually informative exercise whereby competing definitions and varied ideological perspectives on social justice culminate in an effective learning forum. And, second, it provides masters students with critical frameworks for addressing worldly issues with social justice as a core problematique.
The preliminary skeletal model for the course engages interested masters students in a collective forum to gain a common knowledge base on the multi-theoretical concept of social justice in light of a particular public policy context (e.g., housing or education) or topic (e.g., refugees or climate change). This forum is complemented by student teamwork, collectively known as the “social justice lab”, with the support of optional tutorials to fill in prerequisite knowledge gaps where needed. Lab work focuses on project development mentored by the core faculty (and doctoral student teaching assistants) who systematically rotate across the individual teams to infuse each project with an inter-disciplinary chemistry. The culmination of the collective forum and lab work (plus optional tutorials) will be team project deliverables and outreach whereby students share their work with each other and the wider community.