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Exploring Social Justice

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Full Course Title: 
Mountaineers for Progress: An Exploration of Contemporary Social Justice

Welcome Mountaineers! In this course we will create a foundational understanding of social justice topics including diversity, inclusion, identity and privilege. The course is designed for students to interact with various concepts revolving around the broad concepts of social justice and for each student to explore their own understanding and connection to the topic. Together we will work to increase the understanding around our own social justice journeys as well as that of others. This course will integrate different classroom approaches to create a working interaction with systematic social justice issues as well as hot topic trends in the current societal conversation. Ultimately, we will work to establish connections between power, privilege, and oppression to formulate ideas and strategies to impact positive societal change in contemporary society. The foundations of this course are designed so that each student, regardless of diversity and inclusion knowledge, will begin to explore and interact with topics important to our overall development.

Course Details
Prefix: 
UCO
Course Number: 
1200
Section Number(s) and Day/Times Taught: 
141: MW 5:00-6:15pm
Term: 
Spring 2024
Categories: 
Global Issues
Civic Engagement
Instructor(s)

Andrew Lail

My name is Dr. Andrew Lail, I am currently serving as Associate Director of Disability Resouces here at Appalachian State. I was born and raised in Kentucky where I received my Bachelors of Communication and Master’s of Education and Counseling from the University of Louisville. I moved to Colorado and earned my Ph.D. in Higher Education and Student Affairs Leadership from the University of Northern Colorado. I recently relocated back to the mountains of North Carolina. 

My doctoral work focused on curriculum and student development, higher education policies as well as contemporary topics associated with institutions of higher education. I come from a social justice-based program as I have a passion for this work and have seen first-hand how engaging with different and challenging concepts can grow us as individuals, students and participants of the world. I have worked for non-profit organizations, athletic teams and taught in the K-12 system but always seem to find my way back to a college campus. 

When I am not at App State you can find me fishing the New River, hiking/trail running, sitting by the fire with my wife or playing with our dog in the backyard.