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Program
Background and Goals
Objectives And Institute Theme
The broad objective of the Young Ambassadors Study of the United
States Institute at Dickinson College (“the Institute”)
is to provide you with an understanding of “State and Society
in the United States.” Through a combination of academic coursework,
visits to appropriate sites of interest, guest speakers, and participatory
projects, you will examine—from cultural, political, and geographical
perspectives—the values, institutions, and conflicts that have
distinguished American life from the Colonial Era to the present.
Complementing the scholarly elements of the program will be your experience
of cultural immersion in the everyday life of Carlisle, Pennsylvania,
and the surrounding region—from New York to Washington, D.C.
The Institute will encourage your responses to the classroom
material and field experiences through extensive discussions with
faculty,
guest speakers, U.S. student peers, and American citizens
from various walks of life, as well as through digital video and photography
projects.
- Specifically, the Institute will focus on the following areas:
The roots of American political culture and the “American creed” of
liberty, equality, individual rights, democratic governance
and the rule of law, and the tensions between those
precepts;
- American
society as characterized throughout its history by
regional, racial, ethnic, gender, and religious
diversity;
- The
structure and cultural effects of the American market
economy;
- The
structure of American government, as grounded in the
Constitution and as interpreted in law and practice
over the course of U.S. history, emphasizing the interaction of “separate
institutions sharing power” across the branches and levels of government;
- American
traditions of justice, both in terms of formal legal processes and in addressing
inequalities
predicated on race, social class, and other factors (“social justice”);
- The
rights and responsibilities of American citizenship, the withholding of the
prerogatives of citizenship
from minority groups and women, and those groups’ struggles to acquire
freedom, suffrage, and civil rights;
- The
role of individual and civic responsibility as expressed
through volunteerism and community involvement
in building social capital and social (and political) institutions;
- The
role of elections and public participation—from polling to
interest group organization—in American political life;
- Immigration
and in-migration as fundamental elements of American
life;
- American
popular culture, media, and sports as reflections of
American society and as global industries;
- The
ways in which public preferences and political institutions
interact to make domestic and foreign
policy; and
- The
emerging political, social, and economic patterns of an increasingly
multicultural 21st-century
United States.
In addressing these
topics, the Institute hopes to foster an affirmative, yet appropriately
complex, vision of the United States; and to portray,
truthfully and with appropriate balance, the historical
trajectory of a society founded upon, yet often unable to put into practice,
democratic
and egalitarian values. With these objectives in mind,
we have planned a program that stresses themes of diversity, democracy,
conflict, and
cooperation—and that offers in equal measure the critical study
of and personal interaction with a broad array of American
people, places, institutions, and ideas.
Our program offers
an innovative pedagogical combination of more traditional classroom
sessions at Dickinson College and “on-site” presentations
and discussions at appropriate places of interest. Field
excursions will offer more than simple opportunities to sightsee; rather,
they will be
used to illustrate ideas and events covered in the classroom.
For example, a discussion of the competing American ideals that led
to the Civil War
will take place at Gettysburg; an examination of immigration
and the role of ethnic diversity in American society will take place
at Ellis Island;
a visit to Hershey, PA, will facilitate our discussion
of the changes in American industrial production and of the tourist
industries. Even
a shopping mall trip will serve as an opportunity to illustrate
one segment of the American consumer economy. The Institute has numerous
opportunities
for relaxation and entertainment, both on the Dickinson
campus and as part of the broad study tour; but even here, each element
is designed
to reinforce the overall themes of the program.
The overarching theme, “State and Society,” provides a sufficiently
large umbrella under which to address the specific themes mentioned above;
but it also serves to distinguish the American state—its enduring
political and legal institutions—from American society, defined
as the multiple and conflicting ideas, range of distinctive groups, patterns
of belief, and forms of cultural representation that animate and shape
those formal institutions. Government and society are, of course, linked—but
to an extent rarely found in other nations, they exist in different spheres.
Individual rights, for example, are not bestowed by government, but exist
prior to it. Americans have the luxury—perhaps too readily adopted—to
stand apart from their political processes. Many nations have historical
traditions where state and society cannot readily be distinguished. Our
theme, then, underscores our belief that democratic political institutions
are developed and sustained only when more broadly democratic attitudes
and practices prevail in people’s everyday lives—in education,
family life, economic activity, and the arts.
Program Of Local Engagement
Highlighting this notion of everyday life is an extensive
program of local engagement that will give you the opportunity
to meet a wide variety of Americans. The Institute will arrange informal
engagements
with the Carlisle community to provide opportunities
for plentiful interaction with Americans from a variety of ethnic, social,
and professional backgrounds.
The program will also provide you with the opportunity
to volunteer with local community service organizations to learn more about
the importance
of volunteerism and civic society in America, and to
have the opportunity to “give something back” to the community
in which you are residing.
This program of local
engagement, as noted above, is integrated with the academic course elements
covered under the umbrella theme of “State
and Society in the United States.” That theme will be divided into
four major sub-themes, or modules: Values and Beliefs, Economic Life,
Cultural Patterns and Media, and Political Processes and Policymaking.
Each of these will focus, over the course of approximately one week, on
a set of crucial themes in American life. The course will proceed “vertically,” with
each module giving you a foundation for more readily understanding
the material to come. The four modules are discussed further below; for
detailed
information on each scheduled course session, please see
the syllabus and calendar of events.
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