Acknowledgments

Our course and by extension, this book, owes its thanks to the many hands involved— who gave ideas and support around this unique project. We would like to thank The Futures Initiative for organizing the co-taught course “Introduction to Engaged Teaching and Transformative Learning in the Humanities and Social Sciences” and The Graduate Center at the City University of New York for hosting it.

“The Futures Initiative advocates greater equity and innovation in higher education at every level of the university. Housed at the Graduate Center and reaching throughout the CUNY community, the Futures Initiative empowers the next generation of intellectual leaders with bold, public, and engaged teaching and learning. With an emphasis on student-centered practices, the Futures Initiative redefines graduate preparation to include translation of specialized research into the best undergraduate teaching, including for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. The Futures Initiative also fosters greater understanding of the complexities of the higher education landscape by spearheading data-driven research in areas critical to institutional change.”

Special thanks to Lauren Melendez, Dr. Katina Rogers, and Celi Lebron Cuello at the Futures Initiative and Kaysi L. Holman of the Humanities Alliance for their invaluable organizational and administrative support.

We owe a huge debt to the fantastic and efficient team at Manifold App. Through their team of dedicated staff, this project was brought to a level of technological sophistication and accessibility that would otherwise not have been possible. With warm gratitude, we would like to thank Dr. Matthew K. Gold, Robin Miller, and Terence Smyre for their individual help. We would like to also acknowledge the invaluable technical assistance and expertise offered by John Anthony Ades, Developer at Mizo.

And, of course, we are most grateful for the contributions of the students in “Introduction to Engaged Teaching and Transformative Learning in the Humanities and Social Sciences,” Spring 2020. Your compassion, passionate engagement with our class materials, and radical commitment to your students was mutually transformative.