Dr. Marcia Jenneth Epstein

I teach GNST 500 (“Heritage II”), an interdisciplinary “issues” course that spans the historical period from the Industrial Revolution of the late 18th century to the present. Its purpose is to demonstrate the interconnection of sciences, arts, technologies, communications, and governing and economic policies with social crises and solutions. The most effective ways I have found to keep students engaged include:

Role-playing exercises.

Example: You are living in Nazi-occupied France, and have a job with the government and children in the school system. Do you prioritize resistance or safety, and to what degree? What practical steps can you take in each case? What emotional conflicts result?

Context: Understanding the impact of wars on civilians, and the fact that historical circumstances may force good people into agonizing decisions, opens dialogue on the experiences of refugees and victims of war today as well as the living history within previous generations of students' own families.

Drawing parallels between historical and current problems and their solutions.

Example: Reading about the urban poor in 19th-century England, a time of unregulated capitalism in the Western world, gives perspective on the lives of factory workers in Southeast Asia today. The problems of early European capitalism were ameliorated by solutions – e.g. minimum wage laws – that may be applicable to other societies.

Context: Giving students the chance to discuss such parallels, without adhering to any specific ideology, helps to develop “real-world” problem solving skills .

Brainstorming.

Example: Students divide into small groups in order to brainstorm solutions to current social problems on local, national, and cultural levels.

Context: Most of the academic experience focuses on analysis of problems and stops there, without proceeding to creative thinking. Brainstorming, in which ideas are developed without critique, empowers students and gives them an opportunity to move beyond the apathy and cynicism they often feel about the “system”.

Most important, though, is the fostering of compassion. Developing an emotional response to historical conditions is the first step. Students are then given the option to base their course research projects on volunteer work in the Calgary community, so that ideas that can be of practical –- as well as theoretical – assistance are developed and shared. Many students have initiated long-term commitments to volunteer work in this way, and most have grown beyond regarding people whose lives are less advantaged as essentially “different”.

I hope always to leave students in GNST 500 with the belief that they have the ability to change some portion of the world for the better, and that a compassionate and critical familiarity with the past is a vital influence on the developing future.