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College of Arts & Sciences Civic Life Initiative

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A liberal arts and sciences education are essential to a thriving Civic Life.

American University’s College of Arts and Sciences strives to prepare students for lives of purpose, service, and leadership by delivering a world-class liberal arts and sciences education rooted in diverse perspectives and experiential learning. With innovative and inclusive curricula, cutting edge research, and applied training in the humanities, arts, social sciences, and sciences, students graduate with a mastery of skills to help them thrive and become analytical thinkers and global citizens.

President Alger's Civic Life initiative builds on AU’s strengths in civic education and engagement across numerous disciplines (ranging from politics to the arts to STEM to business) and provides the tools needed to engage and solve problems, through diverse viewpoints, perspectives, and lived experiences. The College is a partner in this initiative, showing the value of the arts, humanities, social sciences, and sciences to civic life. Stay tuned for details about special lectures, student programming, and other activities. After all, what is a civic life without the liberal arts and sciences?
 

Civic Engagements

Civic Life across CAS

  • AU students and faculty booth for DC visitors.Visitor Information: Public History students with prof Rymsza-Pawlowska set up booths around to help DC visitors get info they need and to gather and study input and attitudes among DC guests and residents.
  • Quynh Vo and students with Duc Le and others.Learning with the Vietnamese: Quynh Vo interviewed Duc Le, who left Vietnam a few days prior to the fall of Saigon in 1975, observed by students from Quynh’s course in AAPI Oral History.
  • AU sudents working in Ward 7 with the Food Matters project.Food Matters: Health sudents working in Ward 7 as part of the “Nourishing the Body and Soul SNAP Education” grant project with the DC Department of Health.
  • AU art professor Tim Doud with his artwork in DC Union Station.A Great Public Walk: Art professor Tim Doud created a collage of textiles and fabrics for the Amtrak waiting area in DC's Union Station.
  • AU students in production of UrinetownSocial Action, Justice, Performing Arts: Students in new certificate program integrate women’s studies, disability studies, race, diversity, and global studies performing arts courswork and performances.

Spotlight on CAS Centers, Labs, and Initiatives

Humanities Lab on the quad.

Here is just a sampling of the centers, labs, and initiatives within CAS that contribute to the civic life at AU.
Learn more about all of our centers.

  • Antiracist Research and Policy Center (ARPC) 
    The Antiracist Research and Policy Center is an interdisciplinary hub for the research and practice of racial justice and intersectional liberation. They convene scholars, educators, community-based changemakers, cultural workers, and policy advocates in sustainable and equitable collaborations.
  • Meltzer Schwartzberg Center for Israel Studies (CIS) 
    A pioneer in its field, CIS takes a multidisciplinary and pluralistic approach to examine modern Israel’s history, its diverse society and culture, and its complex geopolitical challenges. CIS offers a variety of courses, student trips, faculty-led discussions, and regular public programming featuring Israeli scholars, writers and artists. CIS prides itself as a non-partisan institution that welcomes perspectives from across the political and cultural spectrum. To that end, its programming aims to reflect Israeli society in its entirety, featuring voices from Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel, as well as other ethnic and religious groups.
  • Humanities Truck 
    The Humanities Truck is a fully customized delivery truck that serves as an experimental mobile platform for collecting, exhibiting, preserving, and expanding dialogue around the humanities. Using the truck, we seek to mobilize the humanities and democratize the sharing and production of knowledge by bringing together scholars at American University with community residents across Washington, DC. 
  • Immigration Lab 
    Directed by Dr. Ernesto Castañeda, the Immigration Lab conducts research on all things migration including immigration (settling in), emigration (leaving), transnationalism, integration, categorical inequality, health disparities, demographics, social mobility, racism and exclusion, exiles and refugees, social movements and contentious politics, race and immigration history, ethnicity and space.
  • Institute for Marcoeconomic Policy & Analysis (IMPA) 
    IMPA is a home for research on the macroeconomic effects of policy interventions. Grounded in contemporary economics research, the IMPA model emphasizes economic realities that existing models ignore or underestimate: income and wealth inequality, the widespread prevalence of market power in labor and goods markets, productive public capital, and heterogeneity among firms and sectors in the economy.

Events

Panelists discussing environment.

Throughout the departments and centers of the College, engaging events happen throughout the year where diverse viewpoints, perspectives, and lived experiences are shared and valued. Here are just a few of the events that occur throughout the year. View all of our upcoming events. 

  • Robyn Rafferty Mathias Student Research Conference
    Presented by the College of Arts and Sciences, Mathias is a vibrant annual showcase where undergraduate and graduate students unleash their creativity, scholarship, and original research in front of faculty, peers, and friends.
  • Visiting Artist Series
    The Studio Art MFA program presents visiting artists throughout the academic year to engage in discussion with students and the AU community.
  • Visiting Writer’s Series
    The Literature Department invites accomplished writers to engage in discussion with students and the AU community.
  • McCabe Lecture Series
    The Bishop C.C. McCabe Lecture Series features prominent faculty members, notable alumni, and distinguished scholars from all disciplines within the College.
  • The Mueller Linguistics Lecture Series
    The Mueller Linguistic Lecture Series brings leading scholars on language as part of society to campus annually.
  • Helen and Daniel Sonenshine Lecture Series
    Speakers in the annual series from the Meltzer Schwartzberg Center for Israel Studies have included Ambassador Dennis Ross, Kenneth S. Stern, and Derek Penslar.

Certificates

A selection of related CAS certificate programs:

  • Leadership and Ethical Development (CAS LEAD)
    A cohort-based, four-year certificate program that students enter during their first or second semester after a competitive application process. In seminars and community-based learning opportunities, students learn to lead in a productive and emotionally-intelligent way, working with others to develop solutions to promote justice and confront ethical challenges.
  • Science and Policy  /  Social Science and Policy
    The Science and Policy certificate programs are designed to provide STEM students with exposure and experience at the intersection of science and policy. This includes understanding the process of making policies that affect scientific research, application, and enterprise, as well as policies informed by robust scientific evidence. The program is open to all students majoring or minoring in a STEM field who are at least in their second year.
  • Social Justice, Action, and the Performing Arts
    The Department of Performing Arts (DPA) has developed a new undergraduate certificate in Social Action, Justice, and the Performing Arts. The program is open to all undergraduates across AU who are interested in how the performing arts can enact social change and contribute in meaningful ways to the public good. This interdisciplinary certificate includes courses in women’s studies, disability studies, race, diversity, and global studies, while its core courses are focused on the performing arts. The intensive curriculum prepares students for engagement in areas where the performing arts can make a difference in the lives of others and influence meaningful societal change. The certificate will give students the knowledge, skills, and artistry to serve as catalysts for revolutionary societal change.
  • Applied Ethics and Professional Responsibility
    Both as a society and as members of professional communities, individuals are measuring their and others' actions in accordance with ethical norms. Ethical engagement demands that actors be able to articulate and justify not only their actions, but also the process of decision making behind those actions and its guiding framework.
  • Disability, Health, and Bodies
    The certificate in disability, health, and bodies encourages students to explore questions related to disability, neurodivergence, and bodily difference from intersectional and interdisciplinary perspectives. Students examine the social constructions of disability, madness, fatness, and bodily and mental difference and examine the lived experiences and perspectives of people with disabilities and other physical and mental differences.
  • Gender Analysis in Economics
    Affiliated with the Program on Gender Analysis in Economics (PGAE) in the AU economics department, this graduate certificatetakes a global perspective by collaborating with Visiting Scholars and incorporating relevant literature on Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Post-socialist world and OECD countries.
  • Health Inequity and Care
    This online program (offered at both undergraduate and graduate level) through the Department of Anthropologyis designed for individuals seeking theoretical and practical training to better understand and challenge the roots of healthcare inequality and injustice. Students can take the program at their own pace while working full-time.