The Forgiveness is Freedom Academy: A Knowledge for Freedom Program aims to bring rising 12th graders in Rhode Island to URI for a two-week summer residential experience to study major humanities questions related to racial violence and forgiveness. Does forgiveness require perpetrators to express remorse? Is forgiving forgetting? Is forgiveness freedom?
The program begins by exploring the 2019 documentary film Emmanuel, which explores the 2015 mass shooting of Black Americans at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, from the point of view of victims and their relatives. Socratic seminars will introduce students to texts from Philosophy, History, Africana Studies, and Human Rights. The academy will teach students how to read, write about, and debate the ideas in these texts as if they were in a college classroom.
The program is led by Dr. Skip Mark, director of the Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies and assistant professor of political science, and Dr. Catherine A. John, professor, and chair of the Africana Studies department. The academy will also have several undergraduate mentors who will share their experiences applying for and attending college and help guide students through the program. Guest lectures by faculty will also introduce students to various approaches to engaging with these ideas.
At the conclusion of the two-week seminar, students will develop a year-long research project under the supervision of a high school teacher, student mentors from the academy, Dr. Mark, and Dr. John. The project will address the “Truth-Telling & Reconciliation: Proposing a Framework for the City of Providence” report by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Providence, which aims to promote reconciliation and reparations for injustices related to BIPOC communities in the state. Students will have the choice between a traditional college research paper, a community survey they develop and analyze, or a scholar-recorded podcast.
When: August 4-16, 2024
Where: URI Kingston Campus
Accommodation: Students will stay in a dorm on URI’s Kingston campus
Food: All meals will be provided during the academy.
Cost: Free to students
The Academy is supported by the Teagle Foundation’s Knowledge for Freedom Grants, which
awarded URI a grant in 2023
Contact Person Teagle – Tashal Brown – tashal_brown@uri.edu
