Penn State University is the latest institution to offer a course about the tragic events that unfolded in Ferguson, Missouri, last summer when an unarmed 18-year-old named Michael Brown was shot and killed by a White police officer.
The interdisciplinary African American Studies course titled “The Fire This Time: Understanding Ferguson” started last week and will explore the historical dimensions of Ferguson, the interaction between the police and locals, and the legal proceedings, which ultimately led to a grand jury refusing to indict Officer Darren Wilson for the murder of Brown. Days of protests and civil unrest followed and propelled a new wave of activism, the likes of which the nation had not seen since the 1960s.
“The main goal is to help students put themselves in a position to engage productively with issues like the ones raised in Ferguson. This takes work, and that’s the work we mean to do in the course,” said Dr. Paul C. Taylor, chair of the African American Studies department and associate professor of philosophy, who designed the one-credit five-week experimental class that currently has about 60 students enrolled.
Faculty from a variety of departments and disciplines will guide students through the various issues connected to the unrest. For example, criminology faculty will guide students through a review of the facts of the grand jury case of Wilson, while psychology professors will help students understand the role that the media played in covering the court proceedings and protests.
Taylor said that a considerable amount of time in the course will focus on how young people engaged social media to organize and sustain daily protests, which continue under the hashtag “Black Lives Matter.”
“Ferguson showed the potential of social media around an important event,” said Taylor. “Young folks are much more attuned to this stuff. It’s on their radar.”
Chris Long, associate dean of graduate and undergraduate education in the College of the Liberal Arts at Penn State, said that offering a course that encourages students to analyze historic and current events is beneficial.
