Think Tanks - Request For Proposals

 The Harry T. Wilks Leadership Institute and the Office of the Provost request Letters of Interest for submitting proposals to create and/or re-design courses, thematic sequences, or other innovative curriculum focusing on public engagement and community leadership.

Faculty or teams of faculty may request up to $50,000 a year in funding for up to 3 years.  The deadline for Letters of Interest is Friday, November 16, 2007.

For more information, please see the Request for Proposals.

Acting Locally

Civic Learning and Civic Leadership in Southwestern Ohio

Across southwest Ohio, communities are struggling to adapt and respond to local manifestations of globalization.  Acting Locally: Civic Learning and Civic Leadership in Southwestern Ohio is a multi-year, community-based research and learning project in American Studies sponsored by the Harry T. Wilks Leadership Institute that explores the intersections between globalization and local transformation. 

Acting Locally: Civic Learning and Civic Leadership in Southwestern Ohio links learning and leadership through community interaction, dialogue, participation, coalition building, and problem solving.  Students and faculty will work with local communities in the region to understand better the ways in which local communities are sustained, challenged, transformed, and created in a world where global forces often are as important as local ones in their influence on how people live.

Situated in three distinct locations – Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, the city of Hamilton, and rural Butler County – the project provides an opportunity to examine a range of topics including:

•    issues of race and class in the context of urban development and decay;
•    environmental and community sustainability in the context of metropolitan sprawl; and
•    the expansion of a service sector economy in the context of increased Latino immigration and migration

Our goal is to inspire informed, engaged, and socially responsible citizens by offering opportunities for collaborative and interactive learning that brings together students, faculty, and local communities.

The selected Wilks Scholars take 16 hours of coursework together, as outlined on the Courses page.