A Collaborative Effort: The Senior Seminar on Interdependence

Benjamin R. Barber, author of seventeen books including Strong Democracy, Jihad vs. McWorld, and Fear’s Empire, is renowned for his efforts to theorize and implement democratic practices that cultivate engaged forms of citizenship. As an advisor to President Bill Clinton, Barber was the leading force behind a movement to require two years of national service for younger Americans. More recently, his CivWorld Citizens’ Campaign aims at fostering a sense of interdependent cosmopolitan citizenship through “bottom-up” civic strategies. To that end, Barber has encouraged political theorists to teach courses that expose students to community service.

Joshua Karant, Democracy Collaborative Research Fellow and Director of the CivWorld Higher Ed Initiative, in conjunction with distinguished Politics professor John Seery of Pomona College have collaborated to realize this vision. The flagship course of this endeavor—Dr. Seery’s Fall 2004 Senior Seminar in Politics — will present a unique mixture of intensive reading, writing, discussion, and community service designed to introduce students to democracy and strong citizenship in both theory and practice. Combining traditional and contemporary democratic theory and political analysis with a hands-on, local application for students in the form of a mandatory service component, this course offers a radically engaged approach to the study of citizenship.

A crucial stage in the recovery and repair of civic bonds, this course examines democracy in both theory and practice. Organized service learning internships lie at its heart. Coordinated with Pomona College’s Director of Community and Multicultural Programs Clarence R. Thomas, these opportunities offer students a crucial learning experience which brings life to the tenets of global citizenship while fostering greater community involvement. Because citizenship is rooted in a model of parity, internships stress the reciprocal nature of service learning as an experience which equally enriches both tutor and pupil.

Does this expansive notion of citizenship effectively inform and transform the idea of community engagement and service? What ought to be the relationship between liberal arts institutions and their surrounding communities specifically, and educative practices and democratic citizenship more generally? These are questions that will guide a course relevant not merely to colleges and universities, but to all communities committed to strengthening democracy. Just as Dr. Barber has taken his lesson of strong democracy beyond America, so has he urged us to cultivate our sense of global interdependence. As Dewey so clearly urged, connectedness to our fellow human beings begins within our local communities. This course—the beginnings of a potential revolution in higher education—asks students to study and practice democracy, both in and well beyond the classroom.