Call for Faculty Participation
Cultivating Civic Virtues through Action
ASU’s Humanities Lab (HL) invites faculty at all levels from academic units across the university to co-teach a Humanities Lab course as part of the Cultivating Civic Virtues through Action (CCVA) initiative. The CCVA initiative is funded by The Program for Leadership and Character at Wake Forest University. Faculty teaching CCVA Humanities Labs will receive $5K of funding to support participation in a Community of Practice with other CCVA faculty. The mission of the project is to cultivate civic character among undergraduates by emphasizing the practice of virtues that are crucial for engaged citizenship and flourishing democratic societies.
HL is a non-degree academic program that offers team-taught, inquiry-based, transdisciplinary courses focused on complex social challenges such as migration, climate change, gun violence, and healthier food systems. Instructional teams pair faculty in the humanities with colleagues from STEM fields, the arts, social sciences, education and more. We call our courses “Labs” to indicate their generative, hands-on, collaborative approach. Humanities is in our title to emphasize that technology alone will not resolve contemporary crises. Instead, questions posed in the humanities disciplines–questions about history, culture, ethics, and values–are essential for creating healthier, more sustainable and more just futures. The HL’s pedagogy encourages faculty and students to focus on cultivating civic virtues such as civility and openness to diverse perspectives. The CCVA initiative enriches the HL’s approach by integrating the tools and practices of Principled Innovation (PI) developed by our colleagues in Mary Lou Fulton Teacher’s College.
The Community of Practice is designed to be a space of reflection and action where faculty share tools, resources, and strategies aimed at integrating PI into their Humanities Lab curriculum with the goal of immersing students in civic action. Additional funding will be available for the support of CCVA Humanities Labs and their students. CCVA faculty will also have the opportunity to share what they are learning with their home units.
The Humanities Lab staff will help you find an instructional partner, if needed, or you could recommend someone. We are currently developing courses for Fall 2025 and beyond. Let us know if you are interested and please share widely with colleagues!
Questions?
Feel free to reach out to the grant team —Joan McGregor (lead PI), Tyler DesRoches, Cristy Guleserian and Juliann Vitullo (co-director, Humanities Lab).
Educating Character Initiative (ECI) Institutional Impact Grant
In August 2024, the Humanities Lab at Arizona State University — in partnership with the Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics, the School of Sustainability and Principled Innovation at Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College — was awarded a prestigious Institutional Impact Grant, endowed by Educating Character Initiative (ECI) under the Program for Leadership and Character at Wake Forest University. This year, 24 grants were awarded to 29 colleges and universities across the nation, empowering institutions like ours to lead innovative projects that inspire character education and leadership development.
The Institutional Impact Grant is designed to support projects that align with ECI’s mission to cultivate leaders of character who are committed to serving humanity. Through a combination of cutting-edge research, creative programming, and a supportive network of educators and institutions, the ECI aims to transform the lives of students and foster inclusive cultures of leadership and character on campuses across the country.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the time/commitment for participating in CCVA?
The timeline for the overarching CCVA initiative is outlined for you on slide 15 in the deck, and here is a brief summary of what you can expect in terms of your time commitment.
You will be partnering with our CCVA team to develop and then co-teach a Humanities Lab (HL) in a semester that is mutually agreed upon. In a semester prior to your co-teaching the HL, you will meet with your Community of Practice (CoP) 6-7 times (approx. every other week) to help integrate the tools and practices of Principled Innovation (PI) into your Lab’s curriculum.
The CCVA team also asks that you take what you've learned back to your home unit to share with your director and colleagues in a manner of your choosing.
What is the next step to begin?
The next step to participating in the CCVA initiative will be to fill out our CCVA Brainstorming form (also linked in the slide deck). This will give us a more detailed idea of the social challenge that you would like to take on in your Humanities Lab and your initial thoughts for integrating civic virtues into your pedagogical practice.
Is there a deadline to fill out the form?
We ask that you submit the form at your earliest convenience so that we can begin developing faculty co-teaching teams, assigning semesters/years, and putting together cohorts for the CoPs. We will ultimately be welcoming 42 faculty members into this initiative, that is 3 cohorts of 14 faculty members per academic year (7 co-taught Labs annually).
Anyone wishing to participate in the first cohort will need to turn in their application no later than October 7th to be considered for the Spring 2025 kick-off.
Will I need my director's approval to teach a Lab?
Yes! We have a template that will assist you in requesting these permissions. Reach out to HL Program Manager Monica Boyd to receive this template.
Although Prof Aggarwal and I had worked together on grant projects before, I had never had the pleasure of seeing her teach. Nor was I as familiar with the policy issues as she, so I was able to put fictional works into a much deeper, and more policy-oriented context.
-- Joni Adamson, co-instructor for the Food, Health and Climate Change Humanities Lab and President's Professor of Environmental Humanities in the Department of English
...integrating creative fiction, films, and documentaries into the course... led to the kinds of conversations I have never had in my own classes related to the historical roots of conditions we are facing today.
-- Rimjhim Aggarwal, co-instructor for the Food, Health and Climate Change Humanities Lab and School of Sustainability Professor
Interested in teaching one of our Labs?
Connect with us
Have questions about the CCVA grant details and intent? Feel free to reach out to the grant team —Joan McGregor (lead PI), Tyler DesRoches, Cristy Guleserian and Juliann Vitullo — with any advance inquiries.
We look forward to meeting you!
humanitieslab@asu.edu
480-727-7220