Faculty and Student Videos

Humberto Ballesteros, assistant professor of modern languages at Hostos Community College, presented on how he teaches the Constitution through gameplay to Knowledge for Freedom high school students. This session took place on December 13, 2024.

Prudence Layne, Associate Professor of English and founder and director of the Freedom Scholars program at Elon University, on launching new Knowledge for Freedom programs, how to bring texts from the summer into the year-long civic program, and how to establish a relationship with the local community.

Fannie Bialek, Assistant Professor of Religion and Politics and Director of the Knowledge for Freedom Program at Washington University in St. Louis, describes how she teaches Plato’s Allegory of the Cave with James Baldwin’s 1963 ‘A Talk to Teachers.’

Matthew Pinsker, Professor of History & Pohanka Chair in American Civil War History at Dickinson College, shares how he teaches Lincoln’s First Inaugural (1861) as part of a classroom session he calls “Lincoln’s Secession Crisis, and Ours” to high school students at the Teagle Foundation’s Knowledge for Freedom Touchstone meeting on October 28, 2022.

Lerone Martin, Director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center at Stanford University and Associate Professor of Religious Studies, on how he teaches Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

Alumni from Knowledge for Freedom (KFF) programs speak about the texts that challenged and excited them from their high school summers.

Stephanie Almeida Nevin on how she teaches Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”.

Roosevelt Montás, senior lecturer in American Studies at Columbia University discusses his new book Rescuing Socrates.