FREEDOM SCHOOL

St. David's Room

How to Tax a Billionaire

Guinevere Keith, Graduate Student, Theology and Religious Studies

Why is it so hard for politicians to tax billionaires? This session will explore how campaign finance law, lobbying culture, and insider trading have created an American political system that feels bought by billionaires on both sides of the aisle. Come learn about reforms that Zohran Mamdani and Bernie Sanders are fighting for to fix this problem. The session will connect these reforms to Catholic Social Teaching on the Church's preferential option for the poor, contrasting this value of equal dignity with purchased policy outcomes in today's America.

Radnor Room

Day-to-Day Dialogue: Utilizing Dialogic Skills to Navigate Hard Conversations

Cassidy Trim, Alex Delboy Zenteno, Isa Iboko and Celina Alexander/Staff of the Dr. Terry Nance Center for Dialogue

In this workshop, participants will be presented with dialogic skills and engage with a self-guided application to imagine how dialogic skills can help them navigate topics they are uncertain about exploring with others. It must be recognized that hard conversations of difference are not always scheduled and can arise at any time with anyone. 

By participating in this workshop, attendees will leave with an understanding of what dialogue is, skills that they can utilize to engage with others more deeply, and a tangible plan of action to begin incorporating these dialogic skills into hard conversations of difference. Empowering individuals to use dialogic skills during hard conversations leads to greater opportunities for understanding and connection, building their confidence to continue conversations that may otherwise end in disagreement and discontent. This session will be hosted by the Dr. Terry Nance Center for Dialogue, which engages Villanovans in the practice of dialogue by teaching skills and creating opportunities for meaningful interaction and connection. The Center's approach is grounded in exploring identity and lived experiences, empowering all members to enact justice at Villanova and beyond.

Devon Room

VIISTA: Turning Passion for Immigration Justice into Action 

Farhad Wedee, Staff, Center for the Common Good; Jerry Zurek, New graduate of VIISTA and a retired professor of 50 years at Cabrini University

This presentation introduces Villanova’s Interdisciplinary Studies Training for Advocates (VIISTA) certification and explores how students and community members can move beyond awareness into meaningful, justice-centered action. It highlights current immigration challenges, the importance of ethical advocacy and accompaniment, and how interdisciplinary learning and real-world engagement equip advocates to support immigrant communities with humility, competence, and care.

Cinema

What the Black Freedom Movement Can Teach Us about Confronting Authoritarianism

Anna Duensing, Faculty, History

This session explores what the twentieth-century Black freedom movement can teach us about confronting authoritarianism—then and now. Focused on lessons from a wide variety of historical case studies, it covers how civil rights history offers a blueprint for resisting state repression, building democratic solidarity, and sustaining moral courage under fear and violence. Focused on strategies of grassroots organizers, lawyers, students, and countless other everyday people, the discussion will examine the ways civil rights activists exposed the failings and contradictions of American democracy and mobilized collective power to transform it with the hope of building a better world for all. Their wide-ranging tactics—nonviolent direct action, strategic litigation, community empowerment, multiracial and transnational solidarity, armed self-defense, and popular resistance—remain vital models and precedents amidst today’s erosion of rights and democratic norms, disinformation, militarized policing, and attacks on society’s most vulnerable. Revisiting the movement as a historical and global struggle for democracy, this session celebrates that its lessons are not only inspirational but strategically indispensable for defending freedom today.

St. David's Room

Showing Up: Solidarity in Difficult (and Divisive) Times

Anusha Hariharan, Faculty, Global Interdisciplinary Studies; Dana Lloyd, Faculty, Global Interdisciplinary Studies

As we live through times where basic human rights of those around us are under attack, how do we show up for them? Further, how do we show up for those far away from us, who cannot see us, but whose suffering we refuse to stand by and watch? What does it mean to extend friendship – or fellowship – to those in crisis, and to those who are living between crises? In this workshop, we will approach solidarity-building, why it is meaningful, and the practical ways we can perform it on an everyday basis.

Radnor Room

Gender Equity at Villanova University

Danielle Ross, Faculty, Anne Welsh McNulty Leadership Institute; Annabelle McDonald, Undergraduate Student + McNulty Institute Student Ambassadors 

The Anne Welsh McNulty Institute for Women’s Leadership is hosting a dialogue focused on gender equity at Villanova. The session will be led by McNulty Institute Lorenzini Leadership Ambassadors and staff.  The dialogue seeks to increase awareness about gender issues and create a shared understanding through storytelling and an exchange of ideas. This session seeks to open opportunities for change on Villanova’s campus to promote gender equity in organizations, classes and overall campus environment.

Devon Room

Uh-Oh, What Now?! What to do when you Hear (or Enact) a Microaggression

Krista Malott, Faculty, Education & Counseling; Grace Rhead, Rachel Park, and Laiba Khaqan, Graduate in Counseling Students, Education & Counseling 

Ever been in a situation where you heard or saw something problematic or hurtful and didn’t know what to do? Did you freeze up in fear or shock and later regret staying silent? Or maybe you were the one making the ‘oops’ and wonder how you could have addressed the mistake? Microaggressions are common expressions of biases, and everyone has learned biases. Who couldn’t use a bit more practice and skills in standing up and speaking out during “hot” moments? Come practice in community in this no judgment zone!

Cinema

Teaching in Authoritarian times: Challenge of Academic Freedom and Reflections on Pedagogical Strategies

Raka Shome, Faculty, Communication; Professor Terry Nance, Communication; Vincent Lloyd, Faculty, Theology; Yumi Lee, Faculty, English; Billie Murray, Faculty, Communication 

We are living in authoritarian times, and this is not a cliche but a brutal fact. Higher education and universities are under attack by the Trump administration with its punitive attitude towards the teaching of social justice –race, gender, transgender, imperialism and related issues. Students, exposed to these half baked news derived from mainstream news, can get influenced by ideas in the larger mainstream that attacks "wokeness." There have been cases of faculty being fired or suspended because of student complaints because of lack of support from administrators. There have been cases where faculty are unable to teach how they want to teach, in order to serve public good. The current political administration puts pressure to delink teaching (and research) from ideals of democracy and social justice. In such a time period, what are the challenges for faculty teachers? How do we deal with students in the classroom? What pressure of self censorship do we experience? What kind of support and backing do we need from our administrators to do the work engaging in social justice with students, which is a mission of Villanova. If education is a practice of freedom, then how do we deliver that when we feel pressure to self censor in the classroom? These are critical challenges that face us, and this panel will explore these issues, offer reflections on what is needed in these times.

St. David's Room

Know-Your-Rights for Immigrants & Citizens

Sidney Sponer, Law Student

This session invites engaged citizens and members of the international / immigrant community at Villanova to learn from Sidney Sponer, a third-year Villanova law student and President of the Immigration Law Society, about immigrants' and citizens' rights in today's immigration landscape. Participants will gain practical knowledge about how to protect themselves and their community, as well as learn about local organizations doing immigrant justice work.

Radnor Room

Mending with Glass - Community Art and Reflection on the Summer of 2020

Mary-Angela Papalaskari, Faculty, Computing Sciences

This is a hands-on, interactive session. After a brief introduction and reflection on the Black Lives Matter protests across the globe in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, participants will use glass collected from broken windows of Philadelphia storefronts to create art. Attendees will also be invited to compose a brief reflection and to create designs using glass pieces. The designs, along with the participants’ reflections will be printed as cards participants can take home, contributing to an ongoing project that uses glass to create art as a meditation on positive change.

Devon Room

Implications of U.S. Government Cancelling of Women, Peace, & Security Initiatives

Joe Evans, Faculty, CPJE

On the twenty-fifth anniversary of the UN Security Council passing resolution 1325 to promote women, peace, and security (WPS), the U.S. government has responded not by strengthening their existing action plan or promoting this mandate and essential aspects of peace and justice; rather, the Department of Defense has cancelled WPS programs. These reductions include eliminating funding for international programs to promote women’s involvement in peace processes, cancelling the publication of a collected volume prepared by the U.S. Naval War College from a variety of international experts, and ignoring advice from strategic planners and practitioners on the essential role of women’s involvement and contribution to peace. The cancellation of WPS programs not only hinders the U.S. government’s voice for justice but presents a strategic security disadvantage for promoting sustainable peace.