Engaging Difference & Justice

A collaboration between the CTE and the University Core Curriculum, the Engaging Difference & Justice Faculty Speaker Series provides an opportunity for faculty and graduate student instructors to learn about how other BC faculty engage students in conversations about difference, justice, and critical social questions. Held over lunch, each event begins with remarks by a different faculty member, followed by Q&A and table conversations among attendees. 

Featured faculty have taught Complex Problem and Enduring Question courses as well as those that fulfill the renewed Cultural Diversity Core requirement under the Difference, Justice, and the Common Good in the U.S. (DJCG) and Engaging Difference and Justice (EDJ) pathways. 

Discussions will focus on questions such as: 

• How can course design and pedagogy support students’ capacity to engage substantively and holistically in questions about difference, justice, and society?
• How do other BC faculty help students bring classroom learning to bear on how they live and make decisions day-to-day?
• How can instructors empower students to learn about some of the most pressing questions of our time — from presidential elections to housing insecurity to police violence — without spotlighting, exploiting, or scapegoating students?
• How do instructors support students as they contemplate an uncertain future rife with risk and opportunity for themselves and their loved ones? 
• How do faculty with different backgrounds, social identities, and disciplinary contexts discover methods for engaging students around difference and justice that feel ever more in alignment with their own values and needs?

Spring 2025 Speakers