Civic Engagement and Conversation
Lift Every Voice: Civics in Action Series
Oct 8
Empowered to Advocate
6:30–7:45 pm
Fleet Library
Audience: RISD community
The Fleet Library and Center for Community Partnerships welcome The Womxn Project Education Fund. The Womxn Project will present its Empowered to Advocate series. Gender-diverse activists will lead the series, through which they describe how citizens can engage with local governments to show their support for public policies, including trans, nonbinary and gender-diverse people in their local communities.
Artivism is Strategic.
Creative. Education. Expression. Disruption. For everyone.
The Womxn Project Education Fund uses ARTIVISM—strategic arts-based action, education, expression, and disruption—TO BUILD A MORE JUST AND EQUITABLE RHODE ISLAND.
Oct 9
RISD Votes T-shirt Decorating
Time: 5-7 pm
RISD Beach
Audience: Students
As part of National Voter Education week, grab a 2024 RISD Votes T-shirt, designed by Grace Liu 26 GD. Tie-dying and other decorating supplies, as well as food, will be available on RISD Beach (rain location Moore terrace).
Oct 11
Strategies for Political Discussion and Debate
Time: 1:30–3 pm
Audience: Faculty
By their nature, campaigns and elections emphasize differences of ideology and opinion. This faculty workshop will offer examples of key classroom practices for fostering inclusive discourse about the polarization of the current moment—from understanding political processes and histories to negotiating conflicts of belief and opinion.
Oct 24
No Time to Fail (screening and panel discussion)
6:30–8:45 pm
RISD Museum
Audience: RISD community
The documentary No Time To Fail (2022) gives voice to the experiences of local election administrators, a largely invisible yet indispensable workforce, as they work around the clock to secure the vote for their community during the 2020 presidential election.
Following the screening, a panel discussion with Gregg M. Amore (Rhode Island secretary of state), Rob Rock (RI deputy secretary of state and the former director of elections for the RI Department of State), Kathy Placencia (RI Department of State’s current director of elections and former administrator of elections, City of Providence) and film co-director Margo Guernsey will further explore this critical time in our country’s relationship with election management. This conversation will be moderated by Professor Andrew Robarts of RISD’s History, Philosophy and the Social Sciences department.
Oct 29
Solidarity, Resistance and Collective Trauma in the Context of Israel/Palestine
Time: 6:30-7:30
Audience: Faculty and staff
Centered around the psychology of peace and violence, this event invites faculty and staff to join Johanna Vollhardt of Clark University for an open dialogue around navigating the complexities of the war in Gaza. The conversation will cover a range of topics, from Palestine solidarity and the Palestinian BDS movement to the pluralistic history of Jewish political thought and activism, contextualized within Vollhardt's expertise and research on the psychology of collective victimization and resistance to repression and violence. The discussion will be introduced by Provost Touba Ghadessi and moderated by Jennifer Prewitt-Freilino, associate professor of Psychology and department head of History, Philosophy and the Social Sciences.
Nov 5
Election Day
Past events
Sep 17
Constitution Day talk with RISD’s General Counsel
Audience: RISD community
September 17 is Constitution Day and Citizenship Day, commemorating the anniversary of the 1877 signing of the United States Constitution. Join RISD general counsel to hear about how the Constitution and its amendments continue to shape our country.
Sep 17
National Voter Registration Day
Audience: RISD community
Since the first National Voter Registration Day in 2012, more than five million people have registered to vote in the United States’ largest single-day registration drive. However, as many as one in five eligible US citizens are not registered to vote. Let’s change this together at RISD’s campus-wide National Voter Registration Day event.
Sep 24
Strategies for Political Discussion and Debate
Audience: Faculty
By their nature, campaigns and elections emphasize differences of ideology and opinion. This faculty workshop will offer examples of key classroom practices for fostering inclusive discourse about the polarization of the current moment—from understanding political processes and histories to negotiating conflicts of belief and opinion.
Sep 24
Dissolving Boundaries Workshop with Feelbeit (for faculty and staff)
This interactive workshop takes participants on a journey alongside people of Jerusalem. It is guided by Riman Barakat and Karen Brunwasser, representatives of FeelBeit, a group of Israelis and Palestinians who create art and music to bridge divides in Jerusalem.
Sep 25
Dissolving Boundaries Workshop with Feelbeit (for students)
This interactive workshop takes participants on a journey alongside people of Jerusalem. It is guided by Riman Barakat and Karen Brunwasser, representatives of FeelBeit, a group of Israelis and Palestinians who create art and music to bridge divides in Jerusalem.
Sep 30
RISD Vigil
Audience: RISD Community
We will be gathering as a community to recognize loss and grief that our world has experienced.
ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge
RISD is among more than 1,000 higher ed institutions participating in the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, a nonpartisan effort to increase student voting rates across the US. Our action plan outlines comprehensive, organized, actionable steps to encourage and enhance maximum voter turnout for the 2024 elections and continue cultivating a culture of civic engagement more broadly.
We are also proud to announce that RISD received an ALL IN award for achieving Rhode Island’s highest voter registration rate among nine participating four-year colleges and universities.
How to get involved
You can join your fellow RISD students in the ALL IN challenge by taking two easy steps:
- Pledge to vote in this year’s general elections
- Confirm your registration so you can hit the polls on November 5
ALL IN participation is led by RISD’s Center for Community Partnerships. Visit their RISD Votes page to find resources and more from our nonpartisan, institution-wide effort to educate, facilitate voter registration and get our community out to vote in local, state and national elections.