Dispatches from the Radical Center: Fostering Engaged Citizenship and Investigating Authority in Community-Based Documentary Classrooms

Abstract

The radical center is a space of convergence among overlapping circles, a space in which various ecosystems come into contact. In this chapter, we discuss curricular approaches that take their home in this radical center, leveraging documentary mediamaking practices to connect students, disciplinary approaches, community members, and organizing efforts in relationships of transparency, accountability, and mutuality. In such contexts, students can be equipped to create responsible documentaries through engaged pedagogies that focus on critical documentary theory and understanding of individual location (Coles, 1997). This chapter presents two case studies that facilitated documentary-as-praxis in different communities in the Lehigh Valley, in Pennsylvania.

Citation

Bazaz, A.E., Denke, J., Ranieri, K. and Maldonado, S.F. (2020), "Dispatches from the Radical Center: Fostering Engaged Citizenship and Investigating Authority in Community-Based Documentary Classrooms", Sengupta, E., Blesinger, P. and Mahoney, C. (Ed.) International Perspectives on Policies, Practices & Pedagogies for Promoting Social Responsibility in Higher Education (Innovations in Higher Education Teaching and Learning, Vol. 32), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 101-116. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2055-364120200000032008