THE PERICLEAN: Sharing updates and stories from our network of civic champions, delivered each month.

Stetser Elementary Community Garden, supported by Periclean Faculty Leaders Bruce Grant and Ruth Cary of Widener University with their course "Raised Beds Raise Hopes for Our Communities"

Congratulations to 21 new Periclean Faculty Leaders awarded with grants ranging from $3,000 to $4,500. Faculty grantees will implement course enhancements and revisions that bridge academic concepts with real-world issues, deepening students’ engagement with critical societal issues and allowing them to contribute meaningfully to communities. 

The creativity, timeliness, and breadth of these courses are exciting, spanning a wide range of disciplines while centering a humanities orientation: chemistry, dance, english, environmental studies, history, gender studies, international studies, and sociology. Course activities range from building community gardens to foster intergenerational wellness to learning about how green chemistry can address global challenges, to weaving civil dialogue throughout a politics of migration course, to incorporating student-led research projects strengthening local disabled and neurodivergent communities, and more.

For example, Lailye Weidman at Hampshire College will use the grant to enhance their course, “Dancing Coalition: Contact, Partnering and Ensemble Improvisation” with guest artists that will add significant dimension to a major goal of the course: learning to move together which requires active and sometimes difficult negotiations between one’s own aims and those of one’s collaborators. This embodied experience of “dancing together” mirrors the timely issues of engaging with people who have diverse ideological perspectives, and this dance class is equipping students with skills to navigate space when there is discomfort, difference, and conflicting needs–skills that are essential for democratic and civic engagement. 

These grants are part of the Periclean Faculty Leadership (PFL) Program. This initiative, funded by the Mellon Foundation and Eugene M. Lang Foundation, underscores the transformative potential of the humanities and arts in addressing contemporary challenges and fostering civic responsibility. 

The Periclean Faculty Leadership and Course Enhancement grants reflect Project Pericles’ commitment to empowering faculty to lead efforts that inspire civic participation and foster meaningful connections across divides. Applications were reviewed by Project Pericles staff and a group of distinguished academic external evaluators, including former and current college presidents, former foundation officers, and Periclean Faculty Leader alumni. This cycle, we received a record number of proposals—three to five times as many as in previous semesters.



Congratulations to the 21 recipients whose innovative projects will undoubtedly create lasting impact! We look forward to hearing more about the impact of their work and sharing it back with our supporters.

New Year Transitions: Welcoming Ron Cole as Board Chair

With the start of the new year we are thrilled to welcome the new chair of our Board of Directors, Ron Cole, President of Allegheny College, following the fantastic leadership of our former chair Richard Ekman. During this exciting time of change at Project Pericles, we look forward to expanding and improving our programs to further our mission of invigorating civic engagement on campuses across the country. 

Ron Cole, Project Pericles Incoming Board Chair and President of Allegheny College

Richard Ekman, Project Pericles Outgoing Board Chair and President Emeritus of the Council of Independent Colleges

Outgoing Chair Rich Ekman writes, “Project Pericles is in excellent hands with our new executive director, Sanda Balaban, now six months into her duties, and with a wise and seasoned advocate for civic education, Ron Cole, just beginning as the chair of the board of directors. Project Pericles has a bright future indeed.”

Incoming Chair Ron Cole writes, "It’s an honor to serve with such a dedicated Board and talented leadership team for Project Pericles to put us at the forefront of promoting civic leadership through our national consortium of colleges and universities. Such work is essential to prepare students as engaged citizens and leaders of their communities, nations, and world."

Executive Director Sanda Balaban writes, “I have been very fortunate to work with Rich over the first six months of my tenure, and have greatly benefited from his decades of leadership with Project Pericles and in the higher education sector more broadly. I am very excited to work with Ron to further advance our work. His path-breaking work at Allegheny and the insight and strategic acumen he demonstrates in our every conversation will be instrumental in blazing the path forward.”

New $1,000 Civic Engagement Awards for Spring 2025

As we enter the spring semester, we are excited to announce a new grant track of our Civic Engagement Fellowship, which provides $1,000 awards for faculty and staff. Fellows empower students to engage with public issues in inclusive and collaborative ways, fostering more positive and broader civic participation. 

The new track tackles vital issues related to media consumption which has created echo chambers, undermining our social fabric and the ability to have a truly “informed citizenry” which is foundational to democracy. Check out further information about the track below, and apply for an award by the priority deadline of February 14!

Tracks:

1. Beyond Media Literacy: Enhancing Information Ecosystems to Bridge Divides (NEW TRACK!)

This track supports faculty to design and implement curricula to analyze, engage with, and challenge our polarized and overwhelming information ecosystems. Applicants will develop and pilot assignments or class activities through which students engage with concepts related to information ecosystems and approaches to breaking out of media echo chambers and making constructive use of fact-based information. 

2. Deliberative Dialogue

This track supports faculty to use our Deliberative Dialogue Discussion module or self-created versions of it to conduct discussions with a humanities orientation or drawing upon humanistic inquiry.

3. Voting Rights Expansion 

This track supports faculty and staff to implement the Periclean Voter Activation Modules. Fellows educate students about the importance of voter engagement, the history of voting rights, and/or strategies to overcome present-day challenges to voting and civic participation.

✍️ Pericleans in the Press ✍️

📰  Audrey Bilger, President of Reed College and Pericles Board Member, released an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education’s October issue, “The College Presidency is Broken. Here's how to fix it.” Bilger makes the case for the need to push back against those who challenge the value of higher education, calling for a national campaign to highlight stories of the life-enhancing benefits of college.

📰 Ron Cole, President of Allegheny College and Pericles Board Chair, published an article in the Academic Leader in December, “Economic Development as a Higher Education Imperative." In this article Cole makes the case for campus stakeholders to become involved in local economic development.

📰 Jens Lloyd, Assistant Professor and Director of First-Year Writing at Drew University and Periclean Faculty Leader (2020-2022), published “Entering the “Headspace” of Community-Based Archival Research: Reflection and Invention in an Undergraduate Community Literacy Course” in Community Literacy Journal. This article is based on research done through a Project Pericles Faculty Leader grant.

🛎️ Upcoming Events 🛎️

Will you be coming to AAC&U? We'd love to see you there!

Project Pericles will be presenting two panels featuring our staff alongside faculty from seven of our campuses at the 2025 AAC&U Annual Meeting in Washington D.C. You can read more about our sessions here.

🗓️ January 23, 2:00-3:15 PM: Disrupt Distrust: Fostering Well Being and Resilience through Democratic Engagement.



🗓️ January 24, 11:00 AM-12:00 PM: Co-Creation in Education: Strengthening Communities through Curricular Partnerships.

📖 What Staff are Reading 📖

📚 Sanda (Executive Director) just finished Walter Isaacson's Elon Musk in the attempt to better understand the psyche of one of the richest and most powerful men on the planet and potential implications for higher education and civil society. She's now reading Robert Putnam and Shaylyn Romney Garrett's The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again which analyzes the confluence of trends that brought us from being an “I” society during the Gilded Age to becoming a “We” society during the first two-thirds of the 20th century back to an I society over the last 50 years--with an eye towards what will be necessary to revivify the emphasis on We-ness over the next 50.

📚 Arielle (Associate Director) is reading The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker. It's giving them valuable insights for creating events (from Periclean conferences to weekly staff meetings) that are more distinctive, purposeful, and meaningful for everyone involved.

📚 Chandler Murphy (Program Associate) is reading "The Other Olympians: Fascism, Queerness, and the Making of Modern Sports" by Michael Waters, which tells the story of early trans athletes and explores the origins of gender surveillance in sports.

📚 Jason Vadnos (Intern) is reading Jonathan Rauch's "The Constitution of Knowledge : A defense of Truth." This exploration of what is considered truth in society seeks to empower readers to face the modern crisis of misinformation

What are YOU reading (or listening to--Sanda listens to most of her reading these days...)? None of us have enough time to read all that we wish we could, and we appreciate tips from readers and thinkers we admire. We would love to share your suggestions in our next newsletter! Email: Sanda@projectpericles.org

❗️New Staff❗️

Welcome Chandler

Team Project Pericles is pleased to welcome a new member, Program and Communications Associate Chandler Murphy. Chandler is an alumnus of Pace University, graduating this past May with a B.A. in Political Science and Peace and Justice Studies (PJS). During their time as a student, Chandler worked for Pace University’s Women and Gender Studies Department, where they helped formalize Peace and Justice Studies as a new independent Department. They gained experience in college civic engagement through their role as a Teacher's Assistant for Introduction to PJS. Reflecting on their new role, Chandler shares, “I am beyond excited to join such an impactful team at an organization with such an important mission. I look forward to the chance to take part in encouraging today’s students to be socially responsible, involved citizens.”

If you have a story, event, or publication you'd like us to feature, please reach out! E-mail: chandler@projectpericles.org

PROJECT PERICLES APPRECIATES THE SUPPORT OF OUR BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND SUPPORTERS INCLUDING: THE EUGENE M. LANG FOUNDATION, THE ARTHUR VINING DAVIS FOUNDATIONS, THE MELLON FOUNDATION, THE TEAGLE FOUNDATION, & STUDENTS LEARN STUDENTS VOTE COALITION