Classroom empathy: Binghamton lecturer promotes civic discourse through first-ever SUNY fellowship

For all too many people, the current cultural moment is marked by conflict, in which differences become wedges to drive us apart and blind us to each other’s shared humanity. How can the classroom help fix this dynamic?

Enter the State University of New York’s inaugural class of Civic Education and Engagement and Civil Discourse Fellows, Environmental Studies lecturer Nirav Patel among them. These 10 fellows from across the SUNY system were selected to promote civic discourse among students, faculty and staff across campus communities.

They will work together to develop a community of practice focused on civic education and engagement; help inform a strategic plan; gather resources for faculty to use when developing content for SUNY’s new general education requirement in U.S. history, civic education and engagement; and coordinate with campus student government representatives on these issues.

“It’s really about the urgency of restoring democratic values and freedom, both in our societies and within the classroom,” Patel said.

Patel is looking to develop a case-based civic education program that uses narration and photographic framing to highlight structural inequities connected with homelessness and evictions.

He teaches a series of classes in the Anthropocene, including urban ecology, global health and the food-energy-water nexus. In his class on urban ecology, students learn about how sunlight and tree cover affect heating and cooling bills, and the results of neighborhood soil tests. They also use a database of eviction notices from around the country and other sources to provide a fuller picture of the humans who live in these environments and their challenges.

Patel encourages students to recognize human dignity — first, by exploring their own values and personhood and then expanding it to those they meet, such as workers at the Binghamton-Johnson City Joint Sewage Treatment Plant, which they visit on field trips.

“Students get a different engagement with science — seeing the humanity in the people around you,” Patel said. “Just because somebody’s your janitor doesn’t mean you shouldn’t say hello or try to find out who they are.”

One technique he uses in his food-energy-water nexus course is photographic framing: Students present photographs and accompanying poetry to tell their peers something about themselves and what motivates them about, for example, food policy. Perhaps their grandmother related stories about food insecurity, or they grew up eating particular kinds of food due to personal or economic circumstances.

A well-informed community of citizen scholars must begin with conversations that respect human dignity, he said.

“How do we learn from our differences? Not by highlighting them, necessarily, but having a civil discourse with respect and dignity and learning why they are different,” he reflected.