Justice and Civil Society
This course will encourage empathy and reflection on the life experiences of others, learn about significant social inequalities in the world, one’s perception and experience of those inequalities, and the particular personal and professional ways you hope to address them.
Inside the Classroom
The Jepson School’s Justice and Civil Society course explores the meaning and practice of justice in contemporary society. The course is open to all students at the University and is required for leadership studies majors and minors and Bonner Scholars. The community-based-learning component of the course in the spring semester requires students to volunteer in the community and then reflect critically on their experiences.
This course is shaped by the following three foundational questions:
1) What is justice?
2) What is justice in society?
3) What does justice mean to me?
Together we will explore ancient and modern theories of justice as they relate to society. Readings will focus on the nature of civil society, theories of personal and communal expressions of justice, and social and moral analysis of significant challenges facing contemporary society, with a particular emphasis on Richmond, Virginia.
Outside the Classroom
The class will travel to Northern Ireland to explore the political and religious challenges experienced in that region of the world, particularly as they relate to the period of the late 20th century commonly called The Troubles. The class will learn from organizations, leaders, and citizens themselves about the challenges in the region, how they might be ameliorated, and the way justice is advanced in Northern Ireland. The class will give specific attention to the similarities and differences between conflicts and social inequalities in Northern Ireland and that of Richmond, VA and the wider United States.
Research and Capstone Experience
Students will have a community-based learning experience in the spring semester, focused on working with young people in the wider Richmond region. In the past, the most successful projects have involved tutoring and mentoring children in Richmond public schools or in after school programs in the area. Students will work in teams to reflect on the experiences they are having, and connect those experiences to the learning from the first semester and the travel immersion in Northern Ireland as a way to more directly connect theory and practice and address larger questions that emerge from the course. The students will have flexibility in deciding which community-based settings to work with and how best to organize their projects and present their learnings.
Sample Course Readings
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? by Michael Sandel
Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis by Robert Putnam
Justice by Means of Democracy by Danielle Allen
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden O’Keefe