Ethan Goffman is a part-time member of the English faculty at Montgomery College. He also serves as Associate Editor and weekly blogger for “Sustainability: Science, Practice, and Policy.” The author of Imagining Each Other: Blacks and Jews in Contemporary American Literature, he participated in the Montgomery College Smithsonian Faculty Fellowship Program in 2017. In this video, Goffman shares his experience with designing and implementing a social justice themed project, “Environmental Justice: From the Community to the World.” Students had a choice of two Smithsonian museums to visit based around the theme of either environmental justice or immigration and American identity. The first choice was a trip to the National Museum of the American Indian. The Our Universes: Traditional Knowledge Shapes Our World exhibit and the film Who We Are, provide a superb introduction to the Native-American cosmology, in which human and nature are integrally connected, and land is part of tribal identity. A visit to the Nations to Nations exhibit on treaties showed the trail of broken treaties that constitute United States relations with tribal nations but also illuminated how these treaties have become instrumental in the fight for environmental justice. The second option was a visit to The National Museum of American History, where we visited the American Democracy exhibit followed by Many Voices, One Nation, which together present the struggle for inclusion and the kaleidoscope of cultures in America. The Montgomery College-Smithsonian Faculty Fellowship is the signature program of the Paul Peck Humanities Institute at Montgomery College, a community college located in suburban Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C. Since 1998, more than 180 faculty have completed the fellowship—integrating theme-based learning and museum visits into their courses. The program has spurred more than 20,000 visits to the Smithsonian as MC students and their guests travel to various Smithsonian museums, programs and events. Learn more at www.montgomerycollege.edu/humanities.
Broadcast In: English Duration: 0:16:50