2016-2017 Faculty Fellow

Christine Anderson

Associate Professor, History

Abstract

I propose to organize ongoing discussions about migration and immigration bringing together Xavier students in First Year Seminars and Public History courses with community partners. Cincinnati has been the locus of migrants and immigrants since the nineteenth century, enriching the city's culture but sometimes resulting in friction and hostility. Examining historical examples of diversity will allow discussants to reflect on issues that affect us today without invoking contentious catch phrases. By interrogating texts and artifacts related to experiences of migration, students will retrace Ignatius's footsteps, moving outward "both to share and to learn." Students and community participants alike will gain an opportunity to blend a rigorous analytic approach based in the traditional liberal arts with commitment to the common good in a diverse, complex and interdependent society. These dialogues offer a model of Ignatian pedagogy that can easily be adapted to local situations and replicated by other Jesuit universities.