Mass Humanities invites you to celebrate the conclusion of this year’s Clemente Courses in the Humanities and the publication of the students’ essays on April 21, 2021. During the event, Clemente scholars will share their written work and discuss civic engagement with Smith, whose upcoming book is titled How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America.

This spring, students in the Clemente Course in the Humanities studied and wrote about democracy in America as part of “This is Your Democracy: A Clemente Course in Civic Engagement.” The three courses of “This is Your Democracy” were led by Gina Ocasion, Lucia Knowles, and Ousmane Power-Greene. Classes began with a look at the career of John Lewis. Participants studied some of the many forms engagement can take, from volunteering, to demonstrating, to writing op-eds and letters, to running for office, then wrote about their own experiences as participants in our democracy. Graduates of the course earn 1 credit from Bard College.

“This is Your Democracy” is made possible through “Why It Matters,” a special initiative of the Mellon Foundation and the Federation of State Humanities Councils.

RSVP for a Zoom link for the event.