As a thank-you each year to the partners who have made the program a success, the Duffy offers and opportunity for the campus and community to come together to explore an aspect of the program’s guiding question, “What makes a good society?” These conversations are catalyzed by nationally known activists, artists and academics.
Spring Colloquia
2023: April 20, “What I’ve Learned From You: Twenty Years of Take-Aways” Carol Wickersham, who is retiring after 20 years as the Director of the Duffy Community Partnerships will share stories and insights about what she has learned from community partners, students, colleagues, the City of Beloit and environs.
The Reverend Dr. Liz Theoharis is an ordained minister with the Presbyterian Church, the Director of the Kairos Center for Rights, Religions, and Social Justice at Union Theological Seminary and the Co-Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. She has spent the past two decades organizing amongst the poor and dispossessed in the United States, working with and advising grassroots organizations around the country. She has led hundreds of trainings and bible studies, and recently published “Always With Us: What Jesus Really Said About the Poor”.
In 2018, alongside the Reverend Dr. William J. Barber, Theoharis helped to launch the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. Over the coming years, the Campaign will organize poor people across race, religion, geography, political party and other so-called lines of division to fuel a moral revolution of values in the country.The Poor People’s campaign connects the dots between issues of oppression due to class, race, labor, faith environment, LGBTQ identities through a moral framework in order to empower those at the margins. Using the tools of grassroots organizing the Campaign works with local groups to speak truth to power.
Dr. Theoharis spoke about the continuity between the civil right movement and current non-violent protest and organizing efforts.
Raphael Gang’06, Political Science, Director of Pathways, 4.0 Schools, New Orleans Iris-Ann Hoover’09, Sociology, Connector of Purpose, Strategy and Change, Princeton Review, Minneapolis Phil Mangis’05, Political Science, Director of International Operations, The School for Field Studies, Boston Ruby Jennings’10, Political Science/HEALS, Senior Research Analyst, IMPAQ International, Washington, D.C. Alumi/ae from some of the first Duffy cohorts lead a conversation about changing social dynamics from the vantage points of how the important work they have done and how the Duffy and other experiential learning opportunities has shaped it.
Nancy Fishman is the director for the Center on Sentencing and Corrections project at the Vera Institute of Justice. Since 1961, the Vera Institute has worked with government and civil leaders to improve justice systems in more than 40 states. Ms. Fishman’s work focuses on bail reform and reducing the overuse of jail incarceration. She addressed the use of systemic data driven policy and practice reform to improve state and local criminal justice systems, discussing how Rock County is situated within national trends. Prior to coming to the Vera Institute, she worked extensively with issues of juvenile justice, mental health and incarceration, and prisoner reentry. She holds BA and JD degrees from Yale University and an MA in Human Development and Social Policy from Northwestern University.
Mr. Riley gave a a performance/lecture about music, class consciousness, community work, and the future of progressive political movements in the United States. He performed lyrics from his recent book, TELL HOMELAND SECURITY—WE ARE THE BOMB, as well as talking about his work with the #BlackLivesMatter and Occupy movements, focusing particularly on efforts involving organized labor as it relates to questions of class and race.
Dr. Sara Goldrick-Rab is a scholar-activist who co-founded Wisconsin’s first translational research lab, Wisconsin Hope Lab in May 2014. Her book,
Re-inventing Student Aid for the 21
st
Century outlines opportunities to change financial aid policies and re-vamp support systems for low-income students to promote and propel their successful graduation from college. Throughout her career, she has worked with both the Milwaukee and Madison Public School Districs to develop support systems within the high schools as well as the private colleges that help to minimize barriers to both college entrance and college completion for low-income high school and college students. In 2006 she was a finalist for the C. Wright Millls Award from the Society for the Study of Social Problems.
James Jasper is an author and has taught Ph.D. students at the Graduate Center of the City University New York. He received his B.A. in economics from Harvard. He was awarded an M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California at Berkeley. Jasper has written books and articles, including being an editor for Contexts, about culture and politics for the last few decades. Jasper’s book The Art of Moral Protest gives several contributions to social movement theory
Paul Notzold is a new media artist and designer specializing in mobile and interactive technology. Notzold received his MFA from Parsons, the New School for Design’s graduate Design and Technology program, where he later taught. He has 14 years of experience designing and building large scale online experiences for clients such as Nokia, HBO, Humana, Scholastic, Intel, Warner Brothers, Madison Square Garden, TIME magazine and the Obama campaign. His work has been exhibited and performed internationally, appearing in dozens of notable publications. Mr. Notzold taught cell phone based curriculum and the mobile phone’s place in society at the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University, among other institutions.
Amy Horst is the Deputy Director of Programming for the John Michael Kohler Art Center in Sheboygan Wisconsin. JMKAC functions as a catalyst for and explorer of new art forms and ideas that impact both artists and communities. She works closely with curatorial staff and community to create a vision incorporating multiple art forms which speak to and for a diversity of people. Ms. Horst holds a B.A. studio art and an M.P.A from Indiana University-Bloomington’s School of Public And Environmental Affairs.
Mr. Notzold created an interactive projected graffiti interface on the exterior wall of Campbell Hall.
RobertEgger, founder and president of the DC Central Kitchen, is a highly distinguished social entrepreneur andnon-profit visionary, founded DC Central Kitchen in 1989 with the mission of building long-term solutions to the interconnected problems of poverty, hunger and homelessness. The Washington, D.C.-basedorganization provides breakfast, outreach and counseling services to the chronically homeless, and recycles 3,000 pounds of food each day, converting it into 4,500 meals that are distributed to 100 shelters, transitional homes and rehabilitation clinics throughout the D.C. area. In addition, Egger is the author of Begging for Change: The Dollars and Sense of Making Nonprofits Responsive, Efficient, and Rewarding for All. He was also the co-convener of the first ever Nonprofit Congress, held in 2006. Egger now speaks throughout the country and internationally on the subjects of hunger, sustainability, nonprofit political engagement, and social enterprise.
Dr. Leicht, the director of the Iowa Social Science Research Institute at the University of Iowa and a professor in Iowa’s sociology department, detailed the diminishing economic well-being of the American middle class, described the effect this has had on the social fabric of society, and called on students to demand better. Dr. Leicht has co-authored five books, including Postindustrial Peasants: The Illusion of Middle Class Prosperity with Scott T. Fitzgerald, and Exploring Social Change: America and the World with Charles L. Harper. He has also published more than 40 scholarly articles on the subjects of sociology, economics, and employment.
Dr. Randy Stoecker, has a joint appointment in the Department of Community and Environmental Sociology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and the UW Extension Center for Community and Economic Development. He is co-editor with Elizabeth Trynon of Unheard Voices: Community Organizations and Service Learning, 2009, Temple University Press, written collaboratively with students and community leaders. This event raised questions, presented models and offered insight into ways to get the most out of town/gown partnerships.
Dr. Mario Luis Small, gave a lecture on the transformation of community participation over time, with an emphasis on the importance of understanding change as a cohort process, and the challenges of maintaining participation across cohorts. Dr. Small drew on case studies from his book Villa Victoria: The Transformation of Social Capital in a Boston Barrio, which received the C. Wright Mills Award for best Sociological Book of 2004. Dr. Small holds a B.A. from Carleton and a Ph.D. from Harvard and is the recipient of many awards for teaching, public scholarship and publication. His research includes the effects of class, ethnicity, race and institutions on communities.
The Gates, both lifelong educators, reflect on activism, including civil disobedience, as a way to effect social change. Phil Gates spent 6 months in federal prison as a consequence of demonstrating at the WHINSEC, formerly known as the School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia.
Masankho Banda, traditional Malawian dancer and drummer. Masankho has used his art as way to build teams and foster communication in businesses, schools and non-governmental agencies around the world. He has been designated as a “person of compassion” by the Dalai Lama. He is a member of the InterPlay performance collaborative based in Oakland, California.
Dr. Mary Pattillo, Professor of Sociology and African-American Studies, Northwestern University, author Black Picket Fences: Privileges and Peril in the Black Middle Class.
The tone was set by James Duffy, former President of ABC Broadcasting, One of the Founders of Project Literacy and benefactor and visionary of the Duffy Community Partnerships and the Leadership Institute at Beloit College.
Fall Forums
In recognition of the 100th anniversary of Alinsky’s birth, a lecture was given by Dr. Sanford Horwitt, author of the critically acclaimed biography, Let Them Call Me Rebel: the Life and Legacy of Saul Alinsky. In addition to his work as an author and critic, Dr. Horwitt has served as a national policy advisor, as an instructor at the University of Illinois, Circle Campus and as lecturer at colleges and universities around the country. His lecture was followed by observations by local organizers about community change in the stateline area:
Tammie King, Community Action, Inc.
Michael Ramsdail, Beloit Board of Education
Kurt Handrich, Justice Overcoming Borders
Mark Spreitzer, ’09 Political Science
This Forum was co-sponsored by the Beloit College Duffy Community Partnerships; the Beloit College Sociology and Political Science Departments; Community Action, Inc; and Justice Overcoming Borders.
A panel presentation and discussion drawing on examples of local initiatives exploring varieties of entrepreneurship as means of improving communities. Panelists included: Jerry Gustafson, Coleman Professor of Entrepreneurship, Director of CELEB, Professor of Economics and Management, Beloit College; Tara Tinder, Executive Director of the Stateline Community Foundation; Ben Chrischilles, Senior in Economics and Management, Beloit College, with significant business throughout the community through his work with the Hendricks Development Group, Belmark, and CELEB; Christa Westerberg, attorney specializing in the areas of land use, environmental, municipal, civil rights and govermental law, Shareholder at Garvey, McNeil, McGillvray; and Jackie Gennett, co-owner of Bushel and Peck’s, Beloit’s locally focused food market. Co-sponsored by the Duffy Community Partnerships, the WISE Foundation and Greater Beloit Chamber of Commerce.
Looking at causes of and responses to hunger with Marion Fass, Professor of Biology and Health Studies; Judith Petree, Executive Director at Caritas; Deb Crockett, Program Director at The Learning Center at Angelic Organics; Ashley Vancil, Sociology, ’08.
Beloit Alumni speak on forms of leadership in the Stateline area: John Erikson, Beloit Board of Education and business leader; Terry Monnahan, Beloit City Council and attorney; Prudy Harker, business leader; Steve Gregg, Assistant City Manager; Michael Ramsdail, Pastor and organizer.
A look at immigration dynamics in the Stateline area compared with state and national demographics, including Michelle Erikson, Director of the Wisconsin Literacy Council; Neddy Astudillo, Pastor and organizer, Kim Pernell, Sociology, ’06, and a demographer from UW Madison ’04
What kinds of education are necessary for tomorrow’s workforce? Mike Slavish, Director of Real Estate, Hendricks Development Group; Warren Palmer, professor of Economics and Management; Sue Green, Principal of Wright Elementary School; Ted Serafini’5, Economics and Management,
2023: “What I’ve Learned From You: Twenty Years of Take-Aways” Carol Wickersham, who is retiring after 20 years as the Director of the Duffy Community Partnerships will share stories and insights about what she has learned from community partners, students, colleagues, the City of Beloit and environs.