College Colloquium

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Voices for Change: Fifty Years of Speaking Up

This course explores the voices for change that have prompted us to question the way we live our lives and relate to others. Over the last fifty years, issues of race and gender have been articulated and dramatically changed by voices like those of Martin Luther King, Gloria Steinem, and Cesar Chavez, and we have been inspired to recapture the American dream by Kennedy, Reagan, and Obama. The nation’s anxiety over war and terrorism has been fueled and eased by the speeches of presidents and media pundits, by ethicists and the families of victims. From environmentalism to social justice, from utopian visions to public responses to tragedy, from celebrity advocacy to the protest of traditionally underrepresented groups, this course examines the speeches that have challenged us to change what we think about, believe in, praise or condemn—the speeches that called us to change our actions. The fundamental question we will pose is this: In the last fifty years, how have we used our voices to make real change in the world?

Course taught by

Catherine A. Collins