The Centennial Center for Political Science and Public Affairs is pleased to announce that it has awarded two Growing Democracy grants, totaling $18,928, to support civic engagement projects that will produce cutting edge research and strengthen the bonds between universities and their communities.
“MappCivics.Youth Empowering in Chicago” is led by Dr. Magda Giurcanu, an Assistant Professor at National Louis University, and Edwina Hamilton from the Peace & Justice Center at BUILD, Inc., Chicago. The PIs represent an interdisciplinary team of educators in political science, community psychology, health, and community experts committed to working towards cultivating our youth’s democratic civic virtues to help them become better citizens. Giurcanu’s interest in civic engagement stems from first-hand experiences, first with free and fair elections in Romania as a campaign organizer while in college, and later as an election observer during the country’s difficult democratization process. Hamilton has decades of experience working in Chicago’s West Side neighborhoods as an educator, counselor, chaplain, and Restorative Justice practitioner. This team will work towards implementing a civic engagement model that emphasizes youth capacity, connection to the community, and commitment to social issues. The team serves mostly low-income minority youth and will start with youth workshops at the Peace and Justice Center, BUILD, Inc., while mapping out community-based organizations and youth empowering initiatives across Chicago. They will also conduct a research project to evaluate the impact of the civic engagement model on youth’s commitment to civic engagement. To amplify the voice of their community partner, BUILD, Inc., the PIs will disseminate their insights through podcast episodes, an online bibliography of youth-based organizations in Chicago, and a workshop with the community and political leaders.
In the APSA Growing Democracy grant-funded project “Learning by Watching: Courtwatch programs in New Orleans’ political science education” Grace Reinke leads a team of academic and community partners to expand the use of court watch programs, which provide citizen oversight of the criminal legal system in Orleans Parish by training local volunteers to observe and record court proceedings and increase judicial accountability. In partnership with CourtWatch NOLA, the project brings more undergraduate volunteers into the pool of court watchers in Orleans parish, and solidifies a relationship between the University of New Orleans and the broader criminal legal reform movement in South Louisiana. She also researches the role this program and others like it can play in expanding collective understandings of democratic participation in the multiethnic and working class communities that are the most impacted by criminal legal systems in the parish.
Reinke is an assistant professor of political science and the pre-law advisor at University of New Orleans, and teaches courses on the US judicial system, civil liberties, and constitutional law. Her broader research agenda considers the political and legal dimensions of contemporary inequality, using the perspectives of feminist and Marxist political theory.
The Growing Democracy grant program supports community-based programming from political scientists that aims to bridge the boundaries between academia and community and break down the barriers between residents and governing institutions. Growing Democracy grants provide funding for co-designed programs aimed at supporting informed, engaged, and effective citizens. Funded work must be community-centered, developed with an awareness of community needs, and must recognize the expertise held by both faculty and community members. The Growing Democracy Grant Program is made possible by the generosity of the Ivywood Foundation.
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Grant at a Glance Title: “Learning by Watching: Courtwatch Programs in New Orleans’ Political Science Education.” Amount: $8,928 Proposed Timeline: May 2023—April 2024 Project Leads:
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Grant at a Glance Title: “MappCivics. Youth Empowering in Chicago” Amount: $10,000 Proposed Timeline: June 2023—May 2024 Project Leads:
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- Learn more about Growing Democracy Grants.
- About APSA’s Centennial Center for Political Science and Public Affairs