PROGRAMS
2/27/1968-Berkeley, CA: Bobby Seale, 31, assistant defense minister of the Black Panthers speaks to a crowd of approximately 250, after his arraignment at Berkeley County Courthouse.
Via Bettman/Getty Images
Via https://www.thoughtco.com/bobby-seale-biography-4586366
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The Freedom Academic Achievement and Opportunity Scholars Program is a social justice peer-learning community where an inclusive cohort of students study the elements of intersectional movement building and social justice through a values-based curriculum.
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In Spring 2018, Lang piloted a course at the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC), a federal facility located in downtown Manhattan that houses men and women accused of federal crimes or serving short-term sentences. In Fall 2018, we built on this pilot class by running another class solely for MCC students, along with one combined class, bringing Lang students to MCC to engage in classes along with incarcerated students.
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The Office of Civic Engagement & Social Justice at Eugene Lang College (Lang CESJ) offers small grants to individuals and groups of students to support student programming, research costs, activism, creative projects, or other work that focuses on social justice or civic engagement.
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Lang Civic Engagement and Social Justice (Lang CESJ) dedicates funding to Lang students who are pursuing summer internships committed to social justice values, practice, and/or scholarship.
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Description text goes here
Freedom Scholars
The Freedom Academic Achievement and Opportunity Scholars Program is a social justice peer-learning community where an inclusive cohort of students study the elements of intersectional movement building and social justice through a values-based curriculum. Freedom Scholars is a selective four-year scholarship program for students at Eugene Lang College. The program provides need-based scholarships each year from orientation to graduation for up to 12 per cohort Lang students.
Through a holistic, participatory model, Freedom Scholars creates a space where New School faculty and staff commit to providing students with financial support, student advocacy, rigorous academic scholarship, and access to activists and organizers from the movements of our time. Through readings, podcasts, movies, field trips, guest speakers, and community activities, Freedom Scholars creates a nourishing environment for students to think critically about how to use what they learn to build a more inclusive and dignified world.
What We Do
The student-scholars participate in courses that center social justice taught by practicing scholar activists. Together, the Freedom Scholars Community (students, faculty and staff) work through tenets of critical inquiry, community building, growth, trust, integrity, change, knowledge sharing and love of self and community. Students are required to take a 0-2 credit course in the Fall and Spring semesters. These courses meet on Fridays from 12:55 - 2:35pm. We HIGHLY recommend students meet with their advisors to review their course schedule to ensure Freedom Scholars is a possibility.
Freedom Scholars is housed in the Office of Civic Engagement and Social Justice at Eugene Lang College. Students participate in the Freedom Scholars program from admittance (1st-3rd year) to graduation.
The Scholars community acknowledges a world/climate of white supremacist anti-black racism, patriarchy, transphobia, queerphobia, anti-poverty, and anti-immigrant narratives. Students are given tools to not only face oppressions with care and community advocacy but also to dismantle them. We also acknowledge that this work is ongoing and will never be resolved with single solutions.
As members of this community, scholars meet weekly with a cohort, participate in community gatherings and other activities, which may include field trips, one-on-one advising, film series and guest speaker lectures. Our staff and faculty are activists, artists, community organizers and stakeholders in the field as well as individuals who have expertise in navigating The New School.
In their first year cohort, scholars are welcomed into the program and are oriented into social justice values; the second year cohort typically hones in on the architecture of specific movements and practices; the third year cohort may complete a travel-based or independent summer project; and the fourth year cohort involves self-study and preparation for the future.
Please reach out to langCESJ@newschool.edu with any questions.
The Freedom Scholars program is more than a scholarship — it is a commitment to developing work and identity as social justice scholars and activists. In addition to receiving a supplemental scholarship, scholars are enrolled in a year-long zero to two-credit cohort-based seminar (one credit for each academic semester) focused on social justice theory and practice.
In all Freedom Scholars spaces we uplift the experiences and expertise of our student scholars and cultivate connections. All of our seminars explore strategies for change-making with diverse approaches. Our praxis (study in action) is rooted in community contributions.
In Freedom Scholars We:
Consider the self and identity within community, history, and the contemporary moment;
Draw on key case studies to examine long-term organizing principles and strategies;
Prepare students for evolving social-justice lives;
Challenge the political economy of social justice, specifically its institutional forms: charities, nonprofits, foundations, NGOs, etc. and examine the alternatives such as mutual aid and collective practice;
Navigate lessons in accountability on a community and cultural level.
lang prison initiative
Punishment and detention powerfully shape our society, including our academic institutions. After legislation was passed in the early 1990s ending Pell Grant awards to persons who are incarcerated, many college prison programs folded. However, studies have shown that tertiary education is both cost-effective and reduces recidivism by 40%.
In Spring 2018, Lang piloted a course at the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC), a federal facility located in downtown Manhattan that houses men and women accused of federal crimes or serving short-term sentences. In Fall 2018, we built on this pilot class by running another class solely for MCC students, along with one combined class, bringing Lang students to MCC to engage in classes along with incarcerated students. This program marked the first time MCC has opened its doors to a college, and Lang’s class marked the first college course offering in a federal prison in New York’s history. We believe these classes will not only benefit the professors and students who have their classes inside but will build a culture of restorative justice and compassion that is essential to social justice work. This pilot project was made possible by a generous grant from the Mellon Foundation
Lang Prison Initiative Reading Group is based in CESJ and invites students to gather to read and discuss literature on prison abolition frameworks, histories, current practices, and the contributions of prison education to "rehabilitation" initiatives and community-based violence prevention and alternatives to incarceration programs. These are complicated topics, and students will spend time preparing and participating in each gathering. The students will receive 0 -1 credit for their efforts. The course will be online - once a week - 90 minutes - 6 weeks and instructed by Zishan Ugurlu. This course is organized and initiated by Lang College Civic Engagement and Social Justice.
Lang Prison Initiative’s Reading Group
Previous Courses Led by LPI’s Reading Group
Fall 2022: LANG PRISON EDUCATION INITIATIVE’S READING GROUP: A PEOPLE'S GUIDE TO UNDERSTANDING MASS INCARCERATION by James Kilgore
LANG CESJ
Syllabus: Fall 2022 - LNGC 2030 (CRN 15093) (0 - 1 Credit)
Professors: Zishan (Zisan) Ugurlu
Email: ugurluz@newschool.edu
Class Days Between: September 20 - October 25 / 2022 (6 Weeks Period)
Class Hours: Tuesdays 6:00 - 7:30 pm - Online Course
The statistics of mass incarceration are monumental and widely reported. In this course, we will explore the relationship between the “Lock ‘Em Up and Throw Away the Key” movement, the growth of popular support for a rapidly expanding prison estate, and mass incarceration’s origins story through the in-depth writings of James Kilgore.
The United States came to imprison more people than any other country in the world. The United States incarcerates more of its own than any other country in the world. Roughly 25% of the world’s total prison population is here in the United States, with over 2,500 inmates on death row, 2.3 million people behind bars, 4.4 million people under some form of probation or parole supervision manifest this country’s racialized mass incarceration, the prison industrial complex, and human rights catastrophe.
As Michelle Alexander stated, that book is “A brilliant overview of America’s defining human rights crisis'' and a “much-needed introduction to the racial, political, and economic dimensions of mass incarceration.”
Understanding Mass Incarceration is essential for laying out key concepts and policies and an excellent guide to the key civil rights struggle of our time.
This course was organized and initiated by Lang College Civic Engagement and Social Justice.
SPRING 2022: LANG PRISON EDUCATION INITIATIVE’S READING GROUP: ARE PRISONS OBSOLETE? by Angela Davis
LANG CESJ
Syllabus: Spring 2022 - LNGC 2030 (CRN 12332) (0 - 1 Credit)
Professor: Zishan (Zisan) Ugurlu
Email: ugurluz@newschool.edu
Class Days Between: March 2 - April 13 / 2022 (6 Weeks Period)
Class Hours: Wednesdays 6 -7 pm - Online Course
This course will explore the social justice road to abolition through the writing of Angela Davis. Over the forty years she has been active in numerous organizations and challenging the American prison system which has fallen predominantly on poor communities of color. The United States incarcerates more of its own than any other country in the world. Roughly 25% of the world’s total prison population is here in the United States, with over 2,500 inmates on death row, 2.3 million people behind bars, 4.4 million people are under some form of probation or parole supervision manifest this country’s the racialized mass incarceration, the prison industrial complex, and human rights catastrophe. During the six, hour-long sessions we will read and discuss together the question of “Prison Reform or Prison Abolition” through the Angela Davis’s seminal text Are Prisons Obsolete? People active in transformative justice and prison abolition movements will join us for a few of the sessions. This course was organized and initiated by Lang College Civic Engagement and Social Justice.
Fall 2021: SO YOU’RE THINKING ABOUT BECOMING AN ABOLITIONIST; We Do This ‘Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice by Mariame Kaba
LANG CESJ
Syllabus: Fall 2021 - LNGC 2030 (CRN 13626) (0 - 1 Credit)
Professors: Zishan (Zisan) Ugurlu and Robert Sember
Email: ugurluz@newschool.edu and semberr@newschool.edu
Class Days Between: October 6 - November 10 / 2021 (6 Weeks Period)
Class Hours: Wednesdays 5:00 - 6:00 pm - Online Course
In October 2020 the organizer, educator, curator, and prison abolitionist, Mariame Kaba, published the essay, “So You’re Thinking about Becoming an Abolitionist.” Here are the opening sentences:
"Today, more people are discussing and contemplating prison abolition than ever before. Decades of collective organizing have brought us to this moment: some are newly aware that prisons, policing, and the criminal punishment system in general are racist, oppressive, and ineffective. However, some might be wondering, “Is abolition too drastic? Can we really get rid of prisons and policing all together?” The short answer: We Can. We Must. We are."
If you are thinking of becoming an abolitionist or already consider yourself an abolitionist, we hope you will join us this Fall as we read and discuss Mariame Kaba’s collection of essays and interviews, We Do This ‘Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice. During the six, hour-long sessions we will read and discuss Mariame Kaba’s work together. People active in transformative justice and prison abolition movements will join us for a few of the sessions.
This course was organized and initiated by Lang College Civic Engagement and Social Justice.
Mini-GrAnts
The Office of Civic Engagement & Social Justice at Eugene Lang College (Lang CESJ) offers small grants to individuals and groups of students to support student programming, research costs, activism, creative projects, or other work that focuses on social justice or civic engagement.
Past awards have funded needs like: production costs for an exhibition on Salvadoran migration and displacement; supplies for a theater project with young women in I Have A Dream Foundation's programs; travel to a reproductive justice conference; food for a student-organized conference on urban community and environmental health.
For the latest and most comprehensive information about COVID-19 from The New School, visit www.newschool.edu/coronavirus.
For questions or concerns about your projects, please email langcesj@newschool.edu.
Eligibility
Individual students enrolled at Lang, and groups that include at least one Lang student, are eligible to apply.
Individual students can apply for up to $750 per semester.
Groups are eligible to apply for up to $1,500 per semester.
Priority is given to students who have not previously received mini-grant funding from CESJ in the immediate semester prior
May Mini-Grant will give priority to summer projects
Coverage
Awards are intended to cover the following costs:
Material fees and tangible costs (this ranges from project supplies to website domain to registration fees) Guest speaker honoraria and fees Catering
Awards CANNOT be used for:
Compensation for time worked on the project (for self or others) Study abroad program fees/tuition Personal equipment that can be obtained in school
If a CESJ mini-grant includes requests for prohibited items, said specific item will not be considered for funding. Additionally, students also must make clear if they have or plan to solicit additional funding. Lack of disclosure may lead to an ineligible application
Expectations
Grant recipients must document and reflect upon their project, working closely with Lang CESJ staff to do so. If you are approved for a grant, you should expect to:
Communicate with Lang CESJ staff in a timely manner and proactively share updates
Complete a reflection assignment (with the flexible format, e.g. writing, video-blogging, etc.) within 45 days of project completion
Apply to be part of the annual Lang Dean's Honor Symposium in the year following your project (if applicable)
Participation in the CESJ Fall or Spring Mixer
For projects taking place on campus and/or which involve space booking or public programming, Lang CESJ requests acknowledgment as a co-sponsor of the project/event.
Deadlines
Mini-Grants are accepted in monthly deadline cycles. Applications are due on the first Friday of the month.
SPRING 2023 deadlines are:
February 3
March 3
April 7
May 5
We encourage students to apply as early as possible to allow room for planning, publicizing, and implementation, and for award disbursement should you be chosen. Students are also encouraged to meet with CESJ staff to review applications.
PLEASE NOTE: Award disbursement may take up to 6 to 8 weeks, and is sent via postal mail as a check or electronically through Zelle. We encourage you to consider this as you plan your budget and timing (i.e. immediate payment may not be possible, so take into account that you may receive your award as a reimbursement). If you have concerns about this, don't hesitate to reach out to us.
If you have any questions about CESJ Mini-Grants or this application form, please contact us at langcesj@newschool.edu.
Photos from Racism by Design, an event by BA/BFA TNS Alum Morgan Boals, supported by Lang CESJ Mini-Grants, featuring Jack Jin Gary Lee and TNS Faculty Jennifer Ritter.
Summer Fellows
Summer Internship
Grants at Lang
Lang Civic Engagement and Social Justice (Lang CESJ) dedicates funding to Lang students who are pursuing summer internships committed to social justice values, practice, and/or scholarship. Selected grantees will be required to participate in a mid-summer gathering, complete a written reflection, and present their work at a fall mixer event on campus. Please read the full details on the application form website before applying.
Questions can be directed to langcesj@newschool.edu
Doing gymnastics near an open hydrant on West 114th Street between what are now Frederick Douglass and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevards. July 8, 1982. Credit:Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times
Focus
Funding for Lang students who are pursuing summer internships committed to social justice values, practice, and/or scholarship.
Eligibility
Current full-time Lang students and graduating seniors. Priority will be given to applicants who have not received funding from Lang CESJ in the previous academic year, DACA students, students affected by the executive order travel ban, and applicants with a GPA of 3.0 or higher. Eligible internships include part-time and full-time internships (any location) that require at least 160 hours over the course of the summer, would otherwise be unpaid, and are dedicated to a social justice mission. Applicants should have been offered internships by the time they apply.
Amount
Grants of up to $2,800
Endorsement
Contact information for the internship supervisor is required, as they will be contacted during the application process.
Application Components
Application by online form only.
Co-Curricular
Each year, the Eugene Lang College community gathers to celebrate our thoughtful, dedicated, and engaged students. We recognize high-achieving, academically rigorous students as well as their unique and groundbreaking work, from nesting oysters in the Hudson to teaching in schools in East Harlem and learning Khmer in Cambodia. And we encourage our students to continue to challenge themselves, to think deeply and critically about today’s tough problems, and to engage with their communities to affect change.
The spring 2018 Lang College Dean’s Honor Symposium is a conference at which students present their academic work and co-curricular projects to the Lang community. The application process is designed to identify outstanding undergraduate research and creative projects. Proposals from any academic discipline or combination of disciplines are invited. Proposals that explore critical histories as well as contemporary social issues are highly encouraged, since at Lang, social justice is at the core of our liberal arts education. By participating, students will gain valuable experience presenting their work and engaging the public, as well as building their résumés. There is no GPA requirement for participation in the Dean's Honor Symposium.
See last year's Dean's Honor Symposium.
First Year Fellows
Students mentor a group of incoming first-year students to help them make a smooth transition to Lang and to engage with the campus community. Fellows lead seminar workshops with their assigned group of first-year students throughout the Fall semester and meet weekly in a Teaching and Learning Seminar with other Fellows to develop and strengthen their teaching, mentoring, and facilitation practice. The Teaching and Learning Seminar will be taught by Evan Litwack, Director of First Year Experience and Retention.
Fellows help new students make the transition to college by counseling them on good study habits, academic planning, time management skills, critical thinking abilities, seminar discussion techniques, and personal health and safety awareness. They also introduce new students to social justice theory and practice at Lang. Qualified students earn up to three credits for serving as First Year Fellows, following training in May and August and enrollment in the Teaching and Learning Seminar in the Fall.
Priority Application Deadline: December 8, 2023
Final Application Deadline: February 5, 2024
Project Pericles
Project Pericles is a vibrant consortium of colleges and universities that promotes civic engagement within higher education. Building on the innovative vision of Eugene M. Lang, Project Pericles works in the classroom, on the campus, and in the community.
We collaborate with colleges to encourage faculty to incorporate civic engagement and social responsibility into the curriculum, and to empower students as effective advocates and leaders.