Clemente Inflection Points

FAIN: AA-284556-22

Antioch University (Yellow Springs, OH 45387-1745)
Ingrid Ingerson (Project Director: May 2021 to present)

The development and piloting of four second-year interdisciplinary humanities seminars for low-income nontraditional students, through a partnership between Antioch University and the Clemente Course in the Humanities.

Inflection Points offers texts that guide students on a path from self-awareness to engagement via facilitated discussions in history, art history, literature & moral philosophy. Antioch & Clemente will extend an existing partnership to pilot 4, 3-credit, 2nd-year humanities courses for Clemente graduates, all of whom are low-income adults. According to research, Clemente students are more civically engaged than their counterparts in the general population and 2nd-year students are more likely to earn degrees. Courses are free—including books, childcare & transportation—& guided by experienced college faculty. In response to COVID-19 we will transition 2nd-year courses to online delivery, increasing capacity to reach more students, & allowing faculty to collaborate across disciplines & locations. Drawing from 25 years’ experience, & emphasizing close reading, critical thinking, & writing, we give students the skills they need to succeed in college and enhance their civic engagement.

Associated Products

Restoring the Salish Sea: Time, Memory, and Transformation (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: Restoring the Salish Sea: Time, Memory, and Transformation
Author: Edward Durgan,
Author: Cynthia Updegrave
Author: Johnny Horton
Author: Barbara Krystal
Abstract: An inflection point is a “moment in history” that challenges our understanding of ourselves and of our world. It reflects the events leading to this moment, and our responses as individuals and communities. An inflection point contains before, during, and after, and demands our attention. Unquestionably, our lives are already vastly different in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Beyond the devastation the virus has wreaked on bodies, families, and communities, we have had to contend with the psychological stresses of isolation, the retooling of educational and professional spaces, the decimation of economies, the political fallout on local, regional, and national levels, and the shifting of foreign alliances. At the same time, the Black Lives Matter movement insists that we reckon with the racialized history of our cultural institutions, place names, cityscapes, our very language. And the realities of global climate change become increasingly clear and urgent. Restoring the Salish Sea: Time, Memory, and Transformation will explore questions relevant to the Inflection Points themes through the cooperative study of Indigenous Moral Philosophy, Indigenous informed ecology, and Comparative Art and Literature of the region known south of the Canadian border alternatively as “Puget Sound” and the “Salish Sea” as an acknowledgement of the water’s transborder cultural and ecological significance and in homage to Indigenous language groups. Students will address the following questions: How do the humanities prepare us to respond to environmental change in our region and how might Indigenous knowledge help to understand it?
Year: 2022
Primary URL: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1N1amy2Imuj2rQdy4EKlxisnTb-By1irI/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=108435052015501562724&rtpof=true&sd=true
Primary URL Description: Link to full document.
Audience: Undergraduate

This Land: Environmental Humanities and Hope (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: This Land: Environmental Humanities and Hope
Author: Jane Paul
Author: Kathryn Pope
Abstract: Our conversations are often guided by the humanities; history, literature, art, philosophy and spirituality. This approach offers us ways to show both the paths we have travelled in the past and the new roads we hope for in days to come. Climate change, human development and economic instability have created a state of uncertainty, with risks to local communities and to global well-being. Regions and people with the fewest resources are experiencing the most severe economic and health effects, as many struggle to achieve financial stability or to access clean water, soil, and air. In the face of such change, what is your lived experience? What is the role of stories, poems, public art, spiritual doctrines or Native American lore? What can we learn together and from each other, in order to collectively improve those conditions? With that knowledge, we can choose actions. In this course, we are striving to honor local and indigenous knowledge, to recognize our relationship to nature, our responsibilities to public health, an approach to the societies and economies we all participate in, and a re-envisioning of the planet for future generations. We direct our attention to the humanities – to culture and philosophy and thoughtful exploration of the past - in order to channel multiple voices, to uplift our own, and to make this new path one of life, creativity and liberation. In this course, students will examine how the humanities can better prepare us to make decisions in response to environmental and climate disruptions. When so many lives are at risk, what do we and do we not owe to others? How could we, as Donna Haraway suggests, learn to stay with the trouble in our environment and our entangled relationships with one another?
Year: 2023
Primary URL: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wjeW4wysgv1zqEndpJaUBK2Ir4r4wbQ5/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=108435052015501562724&rtpof=true&sd=true
Primary URL Description: Link to full document
Audience: Undergraduate

Sin Fronteras/Without Borders (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: Sin Fronteras/Without Borders
Author: Patricia Garcia
Abstract: This course will explore the border and the borderlands, both the physical and cultural space of the US/Mexico border as well as the metaphorical borders we experience every day when we transition from our homes to our communities, workplaces, and classrooms, and sometimes, even among our families and friends. By exploring contemporary and traditional art and literature, both fiction and memoir, we will appreciate the cultural resilience emerging from our borderlands and encounter creative ways in which people have responded to colonization as well as the psychological and emotional borders we encounter today.
Year: 2023
Primary URL: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1u0bglzsi73AdmB9VmnLWNMeYAKRj1l8N/view?usp=sharing
Audience: Undergraduate

No Silence Among Friends (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: No Silence Among Friends
Author: Susan Hagan
Author: Darryl Heller
Abstract: What change do you want to see in the world? This class will examine recent events and historical moments to better understand what prompts a person to rise and to be a force for change. How do the humanities prepare us to understand and interpret the upheavals of our own time: wars, racism, colonization, genocide, disease, climate change, and political upheaval? We will study the lives and voices of slaves and racism, suffragettes and feminism, native Americans, and civil rights activists through a variety of texts and images that will enrich our understanding of the challenges and resistances at work in our own time. This class will draw on these moments through primary texts, art, speech, poetry, and music to engage with the present and ultimately speak up for the change we want to see in our community, state, nation, and the world. The course will have readings, videos, art, music, workshops, projects, conversations, and reflections.
Year: 2023
Primary URL: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1slAxppFzwdTOrr6qSK_-v9Pk5hw1dcXx/view?usp=sharing
Primary URL Description: Link to full document.
Audience: Undergraduate

This Land: Environmental Humanities and Hope (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: This Land: Environmental Humanities and Hope
Author: Jane Paul
Author: Kathryn Pope
Abstract: In this course, we are striving to honor local and indigenous knowledge, to recognize our relationship to nature, our responsibilities to public health, an approach to the societies and economies we all participate in, and a re-envisioning of the planet for future generations. We direct our attention to the humanities – to culture and philosophy and thoughtful exploration of the past - in order to channel multiple voices, to uplift our own, and to make this new path one of life, creativity and liberation. In this course, students will examine how the humanities can better prepare us to make decisions in response to environmental and climate disruptions. When so many lives are at risk, what do we and do we not owe to others? How could we, as Donna Haraway suggests, learn to stay with the trouble in our environment and our entangled relationships with one another? By the end of the course, students will be able to analyze how artists, writers, thinkers, and historians have attempted to find meaning and wisdom in the wake of environmental uncertainty - while reflecting on our own lived experiences and impacts. We will discuss a diverse range of materials within the environmental humanities, identifying concerns and describing the historical context and contemporary significance of works studied. For example, students will describe the idea of the commons and explore its history, including power dynamics, human rights, and entanglements between settler commons and colonization in the Americas.
Year: 2024
Primary URL: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1I0dvJb_8HYJUXewoHZ__f77aWBbuLSc9/view?usp=sharing
Primary URL Description: Link to full document.
Audience: Undergraduate

NEH Inflection Points - Antioch University and Clemente (Web Resource)
Title: NEH Inflection Points - Antioch University and Clemente
Author: Ingrid Ingerson
Abstract: An interactive database of collected student work, reading, music and and film resources from the courses, press and additional resources.
Year: 2024
Primary URL: https://sites.google.com/antioch.edu/neh-inflection-points?usp=sharing

NEH Grant Expands Clemente-Antioch Partnership to Four “Inflection Points” (Article)
Title: NEH Grant Expands Clemente-Antioch Partnership to Four “Inflection Points”
Author: Mair Allen
Abstract: This February, Antioch received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities that will support the creation and delivery of a new series of four free-to-attend classes for low-income adults in partnership with the Clemente Course in the Humanities. The new class series is titled Inflection Points and focuses on how the humanities can help us navigate very real social, cultural, environmental, and economic challenges.
Year: 2022
Primary URL: https://commonthread.antioch.edu/neh-grant-supports-expanded-clemente-programming/
Primary URL Description: Link to full article.
Access Model: Open Access
Format: Magazine
Publisher: Antioch University

Inflection Points: A series of four topical humanities courses for Clemente graduates (Web Resource)
Title: Inflection Points: A series of four topical humanities courses for Clemente graduates
Author: Clemente Course in the Humanities
Abstract: What change do you want to see in the world? In a democratic society, what do we owe to each other? How do the humanities prepare us to understand and interpret the inflection points of our own time: war, racism, colonization, genocide, disease, environmental degradation, and political upheaval? By the end of each course, students will be able to analyze how artists, writers, philosophers, and historians have attempted to find meaning and reconciliation in times of uncertainty. In doing so, they will discuss a diverse range of topical texts, identifying both stylistic and thematic concerns, and describing the historical context and contemporary significance of works studied. As part of scheduled class activities, students will design and implement a topical applied humanities project in partnership with a local community organization.
Year: 2022
Primary URL: https://www.clementecourse.org/inflection-points
Primary URL Description: Web link.

The Students Healing Educational Trauma by Studying Literature, History, Art, and Philosophy (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)
Title: The Students Healing Educational Trauma by Studying Literature, History, Art, and Philosophy
Director: Jasper Nighthawk
Producer: Joanna Case
Abstract: For many Americans, a college degree is seen as a path to a better job. But higher education is not just about career advancement. It’s also about developing the life of the mind, critical reflection, and a love of learning. Often, says guest Ingrid Ingerson, those students who have experienced educational trauma and had interrupted studies are those most positively impacted by the chance to study the humanities. That’s why she’s worked to build on Antioch University’s partnership with the Clemente Course in the Humanities to create a first–of–its–kind, free, four-course series for non-consecutive learners. It’s called “Inflection Points.” In this conversation, Ingrid talks about her own educational history and how it brought her to this work, her research into specific Clemente instructors for her Master of Education thesis, and the transformations she has seen in students who embrace this work.
Date: 6/15/2023
Primary URL: https://commonthread.antioch.edu/podcast/s5-e10-the-students-healing-educational-trauma-by-studying-literature-history-art-and-philosophy/
Primary URL Description: Link to webpage containing audio file and description.
Access Model: Open access
Format: Digital File

Supporting Non-Traditional Learners Starts With Respecting Their Knowledge (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)
Title: Supporting Non-Traditional Learners Starts With Respecting Their Knowledge
Writer: Jasper Nighthawk
Director: Jasper Nighthawk
Producer: Joanna Case
Abstract: For those of us who have been shut out of higher education in the past, the path back to being a successful student is full of obstacles. The right support can make this a little easier, though. In this episode, we explore this question with Russell Thornhill and Kathryn Pope, the Co-Directors of the BRIDGE program on Antioch’s Los Angeles campus—a financially free program that has helped over 700 students gain experience and credit studying at the college level. We try to answer how best to support each other as we advance in knowledge and power.
Date: 10/19/2023
Primary URL: https://commonthread.antioch.edu/podcast/s6-e1-supporting-non-traditional-learners-starts-with-respecting-their-knowledge/
Primary URL Description: Link to webpage containing open audio file.
Access Model: Open Access
Format: Digital File

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