The Swearer Center at Brown University

We're hiring graduate assistants! Swearer Center Campus Partnerships Graduate Assistant: Develop and implement resources that support engaged teaching and research across the university. Learn more and apply here: bit.ly/4fWVqgh Swearer Center Data & Evaluation (Spanish Translation) Graduate Assistant: Support data and/or evaluation priorities identified by community organizations and English-Spanish language translation that increase community accessibility to data tools, communications and narratives. Learn more and apply here: bit.ly/3AOcIgQ

Check out the latest episode of Campus Confidential, in which our Executive Director, Mary Jo Callan, discusses why relationships are the most powerful unit of change, why holding positional authority requires action that may challenge the status quo and more!

Student-led public art installation in Providence offers a new perspective on visual impairment. Last Friday, Nov. 1, Brown University undergraduates Daniel Solomon, Rishika Kartik and Zoe Goldemberg (a Brown-Rhode Island School of Design dual-degree student) unveiled “The Blind Urban Subject,” an interactive art piece that enables people to see the way visually impaired individuals experience city sidewalks and intersections. The students created “The Blind Urban Subject” by modifying a sightseeing view tower — those structures at vistas and parks where visitors can pop in a quarter to get a better view — to present examples of ocular dysfunction. The piece can be found at the northwest corner of Angell and Thayer streets. Reflecting on the collaborative installation, which builds off of her 2023 Royce Fellowship research, Kartik shares how she was inspired by a conversation she heard during a vision-loss support group. “They were talking about how there’s a big disconnect between the sighted and blind communities,” Kartik said. “We saw our project as an opportunity to bridge that gap in understanding by sparking people’s interest, then getting them to learn more about the blind community and confront any misconceptions that they may have about blindness.” “The first step to building better, more inclusive cities is to make the blind urban experience relatable and to build mutual understanding with groups who experience life differently than most people,” said Solomon, the project’s director. “My hope is that it gets us to think about the role that public art plays in bringing people together.” Read the full article from Brown University here: bit.ly/4emDj24 ??PC: Nick Dentamaro/Brown University

Globally Local: Education, Migration, and Belonging ??? Wednesday, November 22, 2024 ?4:00PM - 5:30PM ??Petteruti Lounge, Campus Center (75 Waterman St) Globally Local: Education, Migration, and Belonging explores a diverse set of migration stories, educational journeys from high school to postdoctoral experiences, and what it means to create equitable spaces for global communities in education. Guest speakers will include internationally identified members of Brown University's community, Providence community leaders, and youth voices. Professor Andrea Flores will moderate. RSVP here: https://bit.ly/48GXyqj

Why is it important to vote? Election Day is tomorrow, and in addition to casting a vote for the next president of the United States, many Americans will be voting on local issues that impact their day-to-day lives, from school board members to budget allocations. Assistant Professor of Political Science Marques Zárate explains the importance of local elections and shares why voting is an influential way of making the changes you wish to see happen in your country, state and local community.

November 5 is Election Day. Free and fair elections are a cornerstone of democracy and a powerful way for our individual voices to contribute to a collective future. Tomorrow, the presidential seat, 33 Senate seats and 435 House seats will be up for election in addition to many important local issues on the ballot. Tomorrow is Election Day. Let's cast our ballots. To make your voting plan, go here: https://bit.ly/3NPgwkS

Applications open for the Brown-Tougaloo Partnership (BTP) Civil Rights Trip ?? Each year, as part of the Brown-Tougaloo Partnership (BTP), the Swearer Center hosts an all-expenses paid trip for Brown University students to engage with and reflect on the Civil Rights Movement. Participants will visit Washington, D.C., and Jackson, MS, during winter break and stop at Tougaloo College. Throughout the trip, participants will engage with one another through museums, tours, workshops, reflection and discussions. Open to all Brown undergrads! Apply by October 31: https://bit.ly/3NBLDQM

On October 5, 2024, eleven past and present Swearer Center Edward Guiliano '72 Global Fellows traveled to New York City to the Edward Guiliano '72 Global Fellowships Inaugural Showcase and Reunion. The Guiliano fellowship aims to provide students with opportunities to interact with the world through artistic, academic and cultural experiences outside of their current communities. Zoe Yu '27 shares her experience doing ethnographic research and community work in the Philippines and connecting with a community of refugees in Manila. Reflecting on stories she has heard and read, Yu says, "in the same way that stories of overseas Filipino workers have been reduced, the stories of refugees are also equally simplified. There are stories that only migrant laborers and refugees themselves can tell." Looking to build on this work, Yu says, "What I can do right now is continue growing my relationship with this community. Writing is a communal activity. It couldn't exist without the creation and sharing of words. Writing has to go hand-in-hand with action. I'm now working with folx from Little Gaza to create an archive of stories that they are writing for each other, writing for themselves and writing for people outside of their community." Learn more about conducting similar projects through the Swearer Center at https://lnkd.in/ew6DtTTV

#reshare from The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. ??? The Herald shares Brown University students' reflections on their experiences studying, volunteering and conducting research in Brazil. Two students, Michelle Alas Molina ’25 and Akshay Malhotra ’25, spoke about their work through Swearer Center fellowships. Michelle Alas Molina received a Royce Fellowship to support her work and spent a month studying participatory budgeting in Araraquara, a suburb of S?o Paulo. Also a Bonner Community Fellow, she describes participatory budgeting as “an institution where a municipality opens up forums for residents of a city to come and discuss their needs as a community, come up with proposals for those needs and then vote on those proposals so they can be funded by the city budget.” Reflecting on her trip, Molina appreciates “a deeper understanding of how history intersects with contemporary politics, how language intersects and what people are doing on the ground now.” Akshay Malhotra, an Edward Guiliano ’72 Global Fellow spent two weeks in Rio de Janeiro working on an app that monitors heart failure medication for patients. He shares, “My biggest interest was looking at the primary care system in Brazil because the way that their healthcare system works is very different from the United States,” Malhotra said. He hopes to use what he learns in Brazil to improve the healthcare system in rural America. Explaining how the app works through bluetooth technology, allowing patients to monitor their blood pressure, weight and other vitals on a daily basis, Malhotra says, “It’s really giving agency to the patient and giving them autonomy to really understand, ‘Okay, what is heart failure?’” Read the full BDH feature here: https://bit.ly/3NcqBrD Are you interested in conducting similar projects? Join Swearer's workshop, "How to Design a Community-Engaged Research Project," this coming Tuesday, Oct. 9! Register here: https://bit.ly/3zyKPJa ??? Tuesday, October 9 ? 12 PM - 1:30 PM ??Salomon Center for Teaching, Rm 203

Brown University Center for Career Exploration and the Careers in the Common Good program, in collaboration with the Swearer Center for Public Service, invites civically engaged students to this day-long training to prepare for sustained long-term civic participation and action and building skills and knowledge for internship, jobs and careers that involve organizing and building power. This training will teach skills and best practices for campaigning, examine concepts of power and how it has historically been used in the U.S. and discuss how individuals and groups can operationalize it to advance social change. ??? September 29, 2024 ? 8:30 AM - 5:30 PM ??Kobliner Conference Space, Center for Career Exploration Useful for students interested in: ? Building key skills and frameworks for civic engagement. ? Advancing social justice at the grassroots and community level. ? Developing Organizing 101 skills and empowering others. ? Learning more about the structures and history of power in the U.S. ? Developing and sharing the story of self. ? Discussing values and your vision for what you want your community, Brown and the World to be in 10 years. Learn more at https://lnkd.in/eVBZt_-i