During the fall of 2017, art educator B. Stephen Carpenter II began a residency at the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST). He provided new perspectives on issues of access, privilege, and the global water crisis through a series of seminars, performances, and workshops. Carpenter's seminars illustrated ways of disrupting systems of oppression and ways to increase access to potable water in politically marginalized communites in the United States and abroad.

Focuses on the lives and contributions of queer people in cultural, historical, and social context, including identities such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex, sexual, pansexual and gender non-binary. Uses an interdisciplinary approach to explore the complex social constructions of sex, sexuality, race, class, gender identity and gender expression. Explores the institutional and cultural factors that create and maintain systems of oppression. This course is taught from an intersectional feminist perspective. This means that we’ll explore all the different identities that queer people can take; addressing racism, ageism, ableism, heterosexism, cissexism and many other forms of power inequality and oppression. Provides a framework to connect personal experience with contemporary social and political issues.

This course is an introduction to intersectionality and social justice. I’m starting from a beginner perspective assuming that folks are coming into these ideas for the first time. The course begins with some of the typical patterns that people experience when they’re confronting their privilege for the first time, including resistance, fragility, guilt and shame. I encourage folks to always stay focused on their privileged identities, whichever those are. Since it’s an introductory course, there’s a lot of interesting ideas, but we don’t delve deep into any of them. We explore some of the similar patterns that different oppressions face, like victim blaming, competition, internalization, issues around visibility, disclosure, inheritability and familial relationships. We analyze economic systems around work and employment and question the structures and systems that shape our lives. I encourage students to develop their humility, ally and activism skills. We wrap up with hope for how to reimagine a better society.

The course uses a flipped-classroom methodology that centers student conversations during class time.

Students invent a product or process that solves a social problem discussed in the central text.

John Rawls (February 21, 1921 – November 24, 2002) was an American political philosopher, a long-time professor at Harvard University, and the author of several books, including A Theory of Justice and Political Liberalism. Rawls' most important and influential idea was the principle of "justice as fairness" as the basis for political liberalism. He refuted the predominant Utilitarian concepts of the time and took a much more idealistic approach to politics. Rawls' efforts, much of it inspired by the work of Immanuel Kant, led to a revival of the social contract theory, which had long been neglected by political philosophers. Rawls' theories of social justice and liberalism have become widely accepted among modern scholars, and he has become one of the key figures in shaping modern political thought.

Students plan, write, edit and distribute a piece of print or digital journalism about a relevant social problem or issue.

Do you know what your bank does with your money? What is the role of a bank in producing societal well-being?
This course looks into banks that operate differently, namely, “just banks" that use capital and finance as a tool to address social and ecological challenges.
This course is for anyone who wants to understand the unique role banks play as intermediaries in our economy and how they can leverage that position to produce positive social, environmental, and economic change.
Go to OCW’s Open Learning Library site for 11.405x: Just Money: Banking as if Society Mattered. The site is free to use, just like all OCW sites. You have the option to sign up and enroll in the course if you want to track your progress, or you can view and use all the materials without enrolling.

This course explores the ideal of social justice. What makes a society just? We will approach this question by studying three opposing theories of justice—utilitarianism, libertarianism, and egalitarian liberalism—each foundational to contemporary political thought and discourse.

L!NX is the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation's new digital learning platform for self-learners and multipliers/educators in search of basic political content - with a critical eye and from a left-wing perspective.

The content ranges from globalization and trade, history and culture, economy and labor, migration, anti-racism and anti-fascism to organizing, climate justice and food sovereignty.

With interactive, multimedia and short formats, we want to establish a platform where it is possible to take the first steps in political education autonomously. The platform should also become a place where multipliers can find materials and content for their own workshops and seminars.

The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation (external link, opens in a new window) is one of the largest providers of political education in the Federal Republic of Germany. It sees itself as part of the basic intellectual current of democratic socialism.

This course studies the interaction between law, courts, and social movements in shaping domestic and global public policy. Examines how groups mobilize to use law to affect change and why they succeed and fail. The class uses case studies to explore the interplay between law, social movements, and public policy in current areas such as gender, race, labor, trade, environment, and human rights. Finally, it introduces the theories of public policy, social movements, law and society, and transnational studies.

 This learning guide offers educators context, vocabulary, discussion questions, learning activities, printable games and templates, and other resources to support conversations about disability, accessibility, social justice, and community building. We Move Together is a bold and colourful exploration of all the ways that people navigate through the spaces around them and a celebration of the relationships we build along the way. We Move Together follows a mixed-ability group of kids as they creatively negotiate everyday barriers and find joy and connection in disability culture and community. 

Lift A Line asks students to demonstrate their explanatory and descriptive writing skills.

Linguists take it for granted that all languages, including languages in the Global South, are worthy of study. Yet some 40% of children in the world are prevented from studying in and valorizing their home languages—including some of the very languages that linguists study with such fondness. So much research in linguistics and the benefits thereof remain inaccessible to the bulk of the very speech communities whose languages linguists study. This seminar examines efforts by linguists and educators to make their research more inclusive, accessible, and hospitable, and to reduce linguistic-discrimination practices in various communities world-wide.

Students produce digital media to raise awareness and encourage change related to an anti-bias theme.

Position statement from National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics (NCSM) and TODOS: Mathematics for ALL (TODOS)

As a young man, Takashi Hoshizaki was imprisoned on McNeil Island, Washington in 1944 for resisting the draft for World War II.  His resistance was part of a broader legal battle for the civil rights of over 120,000 Japanese Americans, including Takashi's family, imprisoned in American concentration camps.  This lesson includes a 7-minute introduction video, lesson plan notes, activities, vocabulary, and educator resources.

This kit explores how sustainability has been presented in the media with a particular focus on issues related to food, water and agriculture. Each of the 19 lessons integrates media literacy and critical thinking into lessons about different aspect of sustainability. Constant themes throughout the kit include social justice, climate change, energy, economics and unintended consequences.

This activity was produced in conjunction with The Library of Congress and the TPS at Metropolitan State University of Denver. This activity will allow learners to look with with empathy, respect and understanding:prohibition and the war on drugsthe historical and present day challenges these present for economically disadvantaged individuals

This course will focus on issues that arise in contemporary public debate concerning matters of social justice. Topics will likely include: euthanasia, gay marriage, racism and racial profiling, free speech, hunger and global inequality. Students will be exposed to multiple points of view on the topics and will be given guidance in analyzing the moral frameworks informing opposing positions. The goal will be to provide the basis for respectful and informed discussion of matters of common moral concern.

" This course will focus on issues that arise in contemporary public debate concerning matters of social justice. Topics will likely include: euthanasia, gay marriage, racism and racial profiling, free speech, hunger and global inequality. Students will be exposed to multiple points of view on the topics and will be given guidance in analyzing the moral frameworks informing opposing positions. The goal will be to provide the basis for respectful and informed discussion of matters of common moral concern."