Dear Friends, I hope this note finds you and yours well. This tenth weekly roundup of #HumanitiesInTheAgeOfSocialDistancing highlights examples of mobilizing the humanities for civic education, community engagement, and pushing the boundaries of knowledge and inquiry. In honor of commencement season, we’re glad to showcase a handful of examples of student work from local schools and higher education institutions. As these young people move on to new paths, we are certain they will employ the humanities to help make our world better for the future. We will continue to share resources on social media—Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @rihumanities and here, each Friday, where we’ll highlight our top picks from the week.

We’re all in this together, Elizabeth Francis Executive Director and the Humanities Council Team

Your support helps ensure that all Rhode Islanders have access to and engage with the humanities, now, and in the future. Please consider a gift. Visit rihumanities.org/get-involved/donate or if you’d like to learn more contact Rachael Jeffers at rachael@rihumanities.org .

In case you missed it – here are just a few of the ways local students are using the humanities to engage with the community and push the boundaries of knowledge and inquiry.

Learning About Global Health While Living in a Pandemic from Wheaton College Wheaton College students in Professor M. Gabriela Torres’ class Global Health: Power, Sex and Gender have produced Covid Cultures , a blog series featuring student reflections from the first six weeks of the stay-at-home/lockdown orders in the United States. The entries “suggest that the lived experiences of pandemics are as varied as we are. They also show how students of global health gain the tools to provide a critical analysis of culture in the midst of an unfolding pandemic.”

An overview of the project can be found on the College website where three key findings are highlighted:  Experience shapes the perspectives we bring to policy work. Attention to social inequity is a must as we prepare to face the pandemics that lie ahead. This pandemic is changing our culture.

Race in the History and Practice of Medicine The pandemic is disproportionately affecting African Americans and Latinx people. An initiative at Brown University’s Warren Alpert Medical School is addressing these disparities by exposing the history of racism in the medical curriculum and changing the standards for research and practice. Students and faculty are asking: “So should doctors start to see themselves as activists? Should they look beyond their prescription-pad silos and become players in addressing larger, systemic factors that influence health outcomes, such as poverty, racism, segregation, and discrimination?” Read the full article from the Brown Alumni Magazine here .

Our Lives Now from Write Rhode Island This flash non-fiction writing project for Rhode Island students in grades 7-12 has produced incredibly thought provoking reflections from young students about what scares us most, how we cope with uncertainty, and what brings us hope. You can read all of the submitted stories by visiting the Write Rhode Island: Our Lives Now collection on the Rhode Island Covid-19 Archive .

Readings – a sampling of pieces to keep you inspired and connected:

You Thought You Were Free, but History Found You: The 2020 commencement speech you’ll never hear from The Atlantic “We need the poets and philosophers, the scientists and artists, the engineers, historians, writers, and businesspeople. Most of all we need the free thinkers, because now more than ever before, we need people who can look at the world in a rational way and make decisions based on facts and reason.”

This piece by Caitlin Flanagan, staff writer at The Atlantic and author of Girl Land , is part of a series of commencement addresses commissioned by the magazine for students who will not be able to celebrate graduations because of the pandemic. You can read all the addresses in the series here . Authors include Katie Herzog, David Brooks, Bridget Phetasy, and Julian E. Zelizer.

How the Coronavirus Will Shape a Generation from Yes! Magazine This piece by art curator and writer Lise Ragbir considers how the experience of living through a pandemic will shape a generation of children. “It’s true: Every generation has those who know that nothing lasts forever. But this generation now collectively understands that one’s daily existence can change overnight. It’s not merely about the uncertainty of one day to the next, but more so how this new collective knowledge will affect generational attitudes.” Read the full article here .

Upcoming Virtual Opportunities & Educational Materials

A Civic Conversation: What does liberty mean in America today? Thursday, June 4, 2020 5:00 pm  Newport Historical Society and the producers of “Story in the Public Square” are teaming up for a Zoom conversation on liberty and the questions at stake today. The Historical Society states: “Roger Williams felt that we could all be free to practice the religion of our choice, if we also agreed that each of us could also be free from interference in our own beliefs. The conflict between individual liberty and collective responsibility has added another layer to the complexity through time…. What do we mean when we say, ‘land of the free?’ With the help of G. Wayne Miller and Jim Ludes of ‘Story in the Public Square’ we will discuss this question.” Thursday, June 4, 2020 from 5—6:30 pm virtually in Zoom. You must register to attend , as spaces are limited. To RSVP please contact Heather Rockwood at hrockwood@newporthistory.org or call her at 401-846-0813 x110.

RISD Museum - K-12 Virtual Visits  Our friends at the RISD Museum invite you to “bring the museum to your students through virtual visits. With their new materials available on their website , you can lead your own lessons to explore the work of Japanese printmakers and poets of the 19th century, dive deep into ancient life by examining the symbols on an Eqyptian coffin , and explore how ideas can be communicated through sculptures' forms and materials . These lessons offer guidance using recorded videos and more will be available soon - check back often.

Resources for the Humanities Sector During the Pandemic : This list will be added to as the Humanities Council is made aware of resources available to the sector as we weather this storm together. Check back often. General Civic Engagement: Fill Out Your Census Form!

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