The Children of the People: Writings by and about CUNY Students on Race and Social Justice
The Children of the People: Writings by and about CUNY Students on Race and Social Justice
$35.00
In 1849, Horace Webster, the first president of the Free Academy said of the radical social experiment that would eventually become the City University of New York: “The experiment is to be tried, whether the children of the people, the children of the whole people, can be educated, and whether an institution of the highest grade, can be controlled by the popular will, not by the privileged few, but by the privileged many.” More than 170 years later, The Children of the People: Writings by and about CUNY students on race and social justice, offers the perspective of past and present CUNY students–some, now faculty–on the success of this experiment.
The Children of the People presents autoethnographic personal essays, scholarly articles, poems, and two original plays by more than 30 contributors. In the wide-ranging volume, contributors question the notion of meritocracy in a society riven by inequalities across the lines of race, class, gender, and nativism, and describe lives fueled by rage over injustice and filled with the love and sacrifices of family, community, and organizing. Challenging the neoliberal logic whereby college is primarily viewed as vocational training, the essays speak to the importance of cultivating critical analysis, self-reflection, and broader civic engagement.
“In this provocative and passionate edited collection—of personal narratives by students and faculty who have studied or worked (and sometimes both) at the City University of New York—we are reminded of the transformative possibilities of public higher education. As detailed in these beautiful, soulful reflections, its remarkable origins of educating the whole people, pushed forward by historic struggles to make the invisible visible, demonstrates just how vital CUNY is and continues to be worth fighting for.”
–Robin G. Isserles, PhD, Professor, Sociology, Borough of Manhattan Community College of the City University of New York.
Paperback/Hardcover : 404 pages
ISBN-10: 1645042383
ISBN-13 : 978-1645042389
Item Weight: 1.24 pounds
Dimensions: 6.14 x 0.83 x 9.21 inches
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The Children of the People emerged from Autoethnographies of CUNY, a public humanities project funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Seminar on Public Engagement and Collaborative Research at the Center for the Humanities at The Graduate Center; the seminar supports the institutionalization of public humanities practices and pedagogy at the City University New York and across New York City through community partnerships, public research projects, policy development, curriculum enhancement, and expansive creative, cultural, and collaborative works with a social justice thrust.
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The Children of the People: Writings by and about CUNY Students on Race and Social Justice