{"id":99131,"date":"2024-12-02T19:43:38","date_gmt":"2024-12-02T19:43:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/?p=99131"},"modified":"2024-12-03T14:05:00","modified_gmt":"2024-12-03T14:05:00","slug":"humanities-lecture-series-takes-temperature-of-states-civic-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2024\/12\/humanities-lecture-series-takes-temperature-of-states-civic-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Humanities lecture series takes temperature of state\u2019s civic health"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 Dec. 2, 2024 \u2013 Two years ago, Elizabeth Francis and Julia Renaud of Rhode Island Humanities<\/a> developed Rhode Island\u2019s first-ever civic health survey, a project that allows Rhode Islanders to understand the strength and resiliency of the state\u2019s communities and how they are organized to define and address public problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2022 Rhode Island Civic Health Index<\/a>, which was awarded the 2023 Schwartz Prize for outstanding work in the public humanities by the Federation of State Humanities Councils, is a data-driven report \u201cthat includes the many ways that individuals\u2014the \u2018me\u2019\u2014connect with community, society, and government\u2014the \u2018we,\u2019\u201d according to the index.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Elizabeth Francis <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

On Thursday, Dec. 5,<\/strong> Francis and Renaud will discuss their innovative project in the Hope Room of the Higgins Welcome Center as part of the 溏心vlog免费B站 Center for the Humanities\u2019 yearlong lecture series \u201cSustaining Democracy.\u201d They will be joined by historian and journalist Colin Woodard of Salve Regina University\u2019s Nationhood Lab. The discussion<\/a>, which begins at 4 p.m., will also be livestreamed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c溏心vlog免费B站 is thrilled to welcome three distinguished local humanities practitioners who are committed to bringing together the humanities and social sciences in an effort to produce a more vibrant and inclusive civic culture,\u201d said Evelyn Sterne, director of 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Center for the Humanities. \u201cWhile Salve Regina\u2019s Nationhood Lab works on the national level and Rhode Island Humanities’ Civic Health Index at the state level, the two initiatives share the goal of inspiring democratic engagement and fostering a less polarized civic culture.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Julia Renaud<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The civic health index, which grew out of Francis and Renaud\u2019s 2022 report, \u201cCulture is Key: Strengthening Rhode Island\u2019s Civic Health Through Cultural Participation<\/a>,\u201d defines civic life in Rhode Island in broad and inclusive ways, drawing from data-driven indicators and information about diverse aspects of civic life to provide a baseline to help community members, cultural leaders, and policy makers understand what challenges and opportunities Rhode Islanders share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The index is \u201can essential first step for shared understanding and action to improve civic life through the humanities,\u201d Francis says on the Rhode Island Humanities website.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Colin Woodard<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Francis, executive director of the Rhode Island Humanities, earned a Ph.D. in American studies at Brown University and bachelor of arts degree at Hampshire College. She is serving as the secretary of the state commission for the commemoration of the 250th<\/sup> anniversary of the American Revolution. Renaud, Rhode Island Humanities\u2019 associate director of grants and humanities initiatives, previously worked in cultural nonprofits in New York and Providence as an archivist, educator, curator, and public historian. She holds a master\u2019s degree in public humanities from Brown and bachelor of arts degree in American history and literature from Harvard University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Woodard, director of the Nationhood Lab at the Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy at Salve Regina, will discuss his work at the Nationhood Lab, an interdisciplinary research project that works to counteract the authoritarian threat to American democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Woodard is a New York Times bestselling author of six books, including \u201cAmerican Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America\u201d and \u201cUnion: The Struggle to Forge the Story of the United States Nationhood.\u201d A graduate of Tufts University and the University of Chicago, Woodard is a longtime foreign correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor and San Francisco Chronicle. He won a 2012 George Polk Award and was a finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for his investigative reporting at the Portland Press Herald.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt’s exciting to have two such innovative programs operating within the same small state, and to have this opportunity to bring them into conversation with each other\u2014and with members of the 溏心vlog免费B站 community\u2014at a time when democracy seems threatened as never before,\u201d said Sterne. \u201cI’m looking forward to a really inspiring and productive conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cSustaining Democracy\u201d series will return in the spring semester with speakers Eric Gottesman, an artist who leads For Freedoms, an initiative that uses art as a catalyst for democratic engagement; historian Shannon King, who studies race and policing; Emily Drabinski, former head of the American Library Association; and Jefferson Cowie, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and author of \u201cFreedom\u2019s Dominion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along with the Center for the Humanities, the series is co-sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences, Department of English, Department of Gender and Women\u2019s Studies, Department of Anthropology and Sociology, Division of Research and Economic Development, 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Honors Program, Multicultural Student Services Center, and Office of the President.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 Dec. 2, 2024 \u2013 Two years ago, Elizabeth Francis and Julia Renaud of Rhode Island Humanities developed Rhode Island\u2019s first-ever civic health survey, a project that allows Rhode Islanders to understand the strength and resiliency of the state\u2019s communities and how they are organized to define and address public problems. The 2022 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":97348,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99131"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99146,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99131\/revisions\/99146"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}