Social Justice Fair

Created more than 7 years ago, the Social Justice Fair at Penn State Brandywine is an annual campus-wide, week-long series of events and activities that focus on specific social justice themes.

2023 Social Justice Fair

Penn State Brandywine’s Center for Social Impact partnered with Multilingual & International Student Programs, Student Affairs and Academic Affairs to present the 2023 Social Justice Fair from March 27 – April 7, 2023. Migration & Immigration was the theme for this year’s series of events and discussions. 

Would you like to get involved for 2024 or ask another question? Please email Dr. Christine Brown, the Interim Rosenberg Director of the Penn State Brandywine Center for Social Impact, at cmf22@psu.edu.

2022 Social Justice Fair

Penn State Brandywine’s Center for Social Impact and Student Affairs partnered with Penn State Abington Student Engagement & Leadership and Penn State World Campus Student Affairs to present the 2022 Social Justice Fair from March 28 – April 1, 2022. Environmental Racism & Justice was the theme for this year’s series of events and discussions. Miss an event? Scroll down for recordings of our ZOOM-based events.

Would you like to get involved for 2023 or ask another question? Please email Vippy Yee, the Rosenberg Director of the Penn State Brandywine Center for Ethics & Civic Engagement, at vxy3@psu.edu.

2022 Worldwide Climate Justice Teach-In

MARCH 30, 2022 – As part of Bard College’s Worldwide Climate Justice Teach-In, we teamed with hundreds of universities, colleges, high school/middle schools, K-6 schools and faith organizations around the world in expanding the conversations about climate solutions and climate justice.

Julie Stanton: Rethinking Fast Fashion 

Penn State Brandywine Professor of Business Julie Stanton explores how the clothing choices we make have far-reaching impacts.

Mark Boudreau: Channeling Your Inner Climate Activist

Penn State Brandywine Associate Teaching Professor of Biology Mark Boudreau talks about climbing out of his “groundhog hole” to work for real solutions to climate change.

Joshua Marquit: The Climate Crisis – A Social Science Perspective

Penn State Brandywine Associate Teaching Professor of Psychology Joshua Marquit discusses the psychology of the climate crisis and offers a message of hope on how reframing can empower us to act.

PHENND Student Activism Workshop

Philadelphia-area college students inspired to find climate solutions and work toward climate justice came together at this special workshop in partnership with Philadelphia Higher Education Network for Neighborhood Development (PHENND).

Storytelling: Winning the Climate Narrative

A unique evening of stories, poems and songs of climate wakening, sustainability, and change-making featuring:

  • Seamus McGraw, award-winning journalist and author of “Betting the Farm on a Drought: Stories from the Front Lines of Climate Change”
  • Leah Mullen, composer, vocalist, and Penn State Schreyer Honors Scholar (Music Composition)
  • Todd Davis, Penn State Altoona Professor of English and Environmental Studies and author of seven collections of poetry
  • Isabella Briseño, sustainability advocate and Penn State student (Environmental Resource Management, Political Science)

Presented in partnership with Penn State Sustainability Institute and Penn State Ross and Carol Nese College of Nursing

More 2022 Social Justice Fair Highlights

 

Environmental Racism in Your Backyard: How It Affects You and How You Can End It

MARCH 28, 2022 –Mike Ewall, the founder and director of the Energy Justice Network, led a foundational session to ground our understanding of environmental racism and justice. EJN is a national network supporting grassroots resistance against dirty energy and waste facilities, notably incinerators, biomass, coal and natural gas. Since 1994, he has been supporting and working to end environmental racism in Chester, PA.

Spotlight: Clothing Swap

MARCH 28, 2022 – We invited students to do some FREE environmentally sustainable shopping at our first ever Clothing Swap. The Penn State Brandywine Campus Food Pantry collected gently used clothing donations in a variety of sizes for men and women alike.

Spotlight: Carlos Andrés Gómez

MARCH 31, 2022 – Carlos Andrés Gómez, a Colombian American poet, speaker, actor, and equity and inclusion strategist performed at our 2022 Social Justice Fair. He is the author of “Fractures,” winner of the Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry; “Hijito,” winner of the Broken River Prize; and the memoir “Man Up: Reimagining Modern Manhood.” His credits also include HBO’s “Def Poetry Jam” and Spike Lee’s “Inside Man.”

Tykee James: Sustainability Forever

MARCH 31, 2022 – Tykee James is the National Audubon Society Government Affairs Coordinator and co-organizer of the first #BlackBirdersWeek. He led a dialogue on how birders can play an essential role in constructing accessible & equitable outdoor spaces and stand in solidarity with those advocating for more expansive intersectional changes.

Spotlight: SDGs Launch

MARCH 30, 2022 – Students attended a Sustainable Development Goals Action-Plan Development Workshop to brainstorm ways to improve the Penn State Brandywine campus.

2021 Social Justice Fair

Penn State Brandywine’s Center for Social Impact and Student Affairs teamed with Penn State Abington Student Engagement & Leadership and Penn State World Campus Student Affairs to present the 2021 Social Justice Fair from April 12-16, 2021. Mass Incarceration and Racial Justice was the theme for this year’s series of events and discussions.  

Though the fair has ended, we have shared links to the ZOOM recordings of many of our events. Please watch, learn and share!

Questions? Please email Vippy Yee, the Rosenberg Director of the Penn State Brandywine Center for Ethics & Civic Engagement, at vxy3@psu.edu.

⏪

Rewind!

Couldn’t attend our 2021 Social Justice Fair events live? Please watch, learn and share these recordings of many of our events below!

Kickoff & Kahoot

APRIL 12, 2021 – Patricia Collins, Penn State Abington Assistant Teaching Professor of Criminal Justice, grounds us in some key terms and concepts to begin our weeklong study of Mass Incarceration and Racial Justice. Then, we play a Kahoot game to reinforce what we’ve learned.

Policing Through History

APRIL 13, 2021 – Julie Gallagher, Penn State Brandywine Associate Professor of History and American Studies, presents an overview of the history of policing in the United States.

“The Mayor of Graterford” Discussion

APRIL 13, 2021 – At this event, we watched and discussed “The Mayor of Graterford,” a 2018 social justice documentary produced by Villanova University students examining the issue of life without parole sentencing and the commutation process in Pennsylvania through the experiences of current and former inmates. This video picks up with our post-screening panel discussion featuring Penn State Abington Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice Kurt Fowler, Delaware County Councilman Kevin Madden and Delco Coalition for Prison Reform Leadership Team Member Tonita Austin.

Student Voices

APRIL 14, 2021 – At this event, we watched videos of current Penn State Brandywine and Abington student leaders reflecting on what it means to be anti-racist and what racial justice means to them. Then, we took up the discussion together.

Racial Justice & Penn State

APRIL 14, 2021 – Enjoy this lively panel discussion featuring alumni from Penn State’s class of 1972 as well as a very recent alumna and current students as they reflect on their experiences at Penn State as students of color. 

Our panelists included:

  • Current students: Jasmine Century, Vianca Manchay, Brisa Luzzi Castro, Abisha Ebenezer
  • Class of 1972 Alumni: Barry Reddish, Darryl Trent, Natalie Burrell Wells
  • Recent Alumna: Keiaisha Jackson (Class of 2020) 

Spoken Word Artist Ashlee Haze

APRIL 15, 2021 – Enjoy this captivating spoken word performance inspired by our themes from Ashlee Haze, a poet and spoken word artist from Atlanta by way of Chicago who is accomplished in the sport of poetry slam and recently appeared on NPR’s Tiny Desk series.

Voting Rights & Incarceration

APRIL 16, 2021 – Watch this discussion on restoring voting rights for incarcerated individuals as well as those who were formerly incarcerated with Robert C. White, Jr., an At-Large Member of the Council of the District of Columbia. 

Photo Contest Winners

Current students, faculty and staff at Penn State Brandywine, Penn State Abington and Penn State World Campus were invited to bring their lens to the theme of Mass Incarceration and Racial Justice by entering our 2021 Social Justice Fair Photo Contest. We offered two prompts.

Category #1 Prompt: What does racial justice mean to you?

Category #2 Prompt: What are the effects of mass incarceration?

Winners have been named by: 1) a panel of professional judges; and, 2) a popular vote conducted after the Social Justice Fair.

Student winners of the judges’ vote received a $50 Amazon e-gift card; student winners of the popular vote received a puzzle featuring their photograph. All winning entries may be featured by Penn State on its various communications platforms and social media venues.

Category 1 – Judges’ Winner – Student

Ammar Jannat Ferdous Chowdhury, Penn State Brandywine, Freshman – Psychology

Category 2 – Judges’ Winner & Popular Vote Winner – Student

Jonathan Liu, Penn State Abington, Freshman – Marketing

Category 1 – Popular Vote Winner – Student

Zachary Karlton, Penn State Brandywine, Freshman – Communications

Category 1 – Judges’ Winner – Faculty/Staff

Christine Allen, Penn State Brandywine, Coordinator of Career Services

Learning Resources

Reading Materials

Organizations

Guides for Discussion

Documentaries

  • “Freedom on My Mind” (1994): Chronicles the Mississippi voter registration drive from 1961- 64.
  • “Freedom Riders” (2011): The powerful harrowing and ultimately inspirational story of six months in 1961 that changed America forever. From May until November 1961, more than 400 black and white Americans risked their lives—and many endured savage beatings and imprisonment—for simply traveling together on buses and trains as they journeyed through the Deep South. Deliberately violating Jim Crow laws in order to test and challenge a segregated interstate travel system, the Freedom Riders met with bitter racism and mob violence along the way, sorely testing their belief in nonviolent activism.
  • “Driving While Black” (2020): A PBS documentary on how the advent of the automobile brought new mobility and freedom for African Americans but also exposed them to discrimination and deadly violence, and how that history resonates today.
  • “The Mayor of Graterford” (2018): A social justice documentary produced by students at Villanova University; examines the issue of life without parole sentencing and the commutation process in Pennsylvania through the experiences of current and former inmates.
  • “Standing On my Sisters’ Shoulders” (2002): In 1965, when three women walked into the US House of Representatives in Washington D.C., they had come a very long way. Neither lawyers nor politicians, they were ordinary women from Mississippi,and descendants of African slaves. They had come to their country’s capital seeking civil rights, the first black women to be allowed in the senate chambers in nearly 100 years. A missing chapter in our nation’s record of the Civil Rights movement, this powerful documentary reveals the movement in Mississippi in the 1950’s and 60’s from the point of view of the courageous women who lived it – and emerged as its grassroots leaders. Their living testimony offers a window into a unique moment when the founders’ promise of freedom and justice passed from rhetoric to reality for all Americans. 
  • “13th” (2016): An in-depth look at the prison system in the United States and how it reveals the nation’s history of racial inequality.

Feature Films

  • “Just Mercy” (2019)
  • “The Trial of the Chicago 7” (2020)

Museums/Memorials

2019 Social Justice Fair 

The 2019 Social Justice Fair focused on the issue of belonging. Programming activities were held from April 15-19, including the creation of a community mural, the Student Engagement Showcase, a Global Dialogue Lunch, a Civic Dialogue Breakfast and Dinner, and a Workshop on Identity that featured videos of PSU Brandywine students discussing their feelings about belonging, and a Film Screening of The Hate U Give.

Follow our social media pages to stay updated on Social Justice Fair dates, events, and activities!