Philanthropy and Civic Engagement

Catalog description

Is philanthropy a radical tool for justice or a symptom of systemic failure? This course functions as both a humanities seminar and a real-world grant-making lab, where students move between the philosophical "why" and the practical "how" of giving. We'll learn about different approaches to philanthropy and explore its history to interrogate how ethics, nationalism, and power drive the distribution of wealth. This is not a simulation: operating as a collective board of directors, the class will research, debate, and ultimately distribute class funds (upwards of $50,000) to organizations selected by students. Across the semester, students will transform theory into action, deciding together how to move resources from the classroom into the community. Moving from Andrew Carnegie's "Gospel of Wealth" to contemporary calls to "decolonize wealth," we will interrogate the history and culture of American giving. We will read across the humanities and social sciences—from Virginia Woolf’s critiques of patriarchal capital to Teju Cole’s skepticism of the "savior" complex to Janet Poppendieck's skewering of U.S. reliance on volunteer-driven emergency food distribution to Peter Singer's paradigm of "effective altruism." How do we balance sustainability with productive disruption? How do we weigh immediate needs against systemic change? By the end of the term, you will have moved beyond the role of a student and into the role of a practitioner, making final, high-stakes investments in the future of our community.