How is Activist Engagement Related to Liberal Education? (Part 1)

The debates around the recent Occupy movement have prompted questions about what constitutes effective action and whether the current young generation is engaged in social issues. Can these budding activist energies be sustained enough to create change? How can the interests of students who are focused on career training, or who approach learning with passivity, be expanded and nurtured so that they can act with greater alertness and attention to issues they face as global citizens? The Occupy movement, no matter how disorganized they may appear to be, suggests that what may be lacking is the theory, knowledge, and skills necessary to sustain active engagement against discursive, political, and economic pressures which encourage passive acceptance. Speakers: Josephine Mills and Bruce MacKay Bruce MacKay, a near-native Lethbridgian, did his undergraduate at the U. of L. in Anthropology, completed his Masters in Theological Studies at Harvard, and did his PhD at the University of Toronto in Religious Studies. He has taught a wide variety of courses at Red Crow College, Lethbridge College, and the University of Lethbridge. Since 2003 he has been Coordinator of the Liberal Education program in the Faculty of Arts and Science. His current research is in issues associated with teaching and learning for a liberal education. Josephine Mills is the Director/Curator of the University of Lethbridge Art Gallery and an Associate Professor in the Department of Art. She has worked as a curator and public programmer in art galleries and artist-run centres in Saskatoon and Vancouver. Mills has a PhD in Communication Studies from Concordia University and is a graduate of the Museum Leadership Institute at the Getty Center. Her research interests focus on broader issues related to collecting for art galleries and for artists as well as on the relationship between art and notions of public in Canada. Mills is the President of the Canadian Art Museum Directors’ Organization / Organisation des Directeurs des Musées d’Art du Canada and a past President of the University and College Art Gallery Association of Canada.