In this proposal for a National Service Learning Academy and complimentary Action Research Program, several curricula configurations are put forth. The first is a full-blown action research major that partially dictates the appropriate courses to take fulfilling the A&S core requirements and the majority of free electives. The second is a minor/certificate in action research. The third is an alternative set of core courses that would replace the credit hours traditionally reserved for the A&S core requirements, enabling any student to tack on the action research experience to their chosen major while still having credit hours available to pursue other minors, certificates, or electives. The fourth is an alternative core that is based more heavily on applied courses and knowledge.
The purpose of this capstone was to organize and pursue the creation of a Dialogue in the Dark exhibition in Cincinnati. Dialogue in the Dark is an organization that, since 1988, has internationally utilized exhibits that allow visitors to be led through an hour long simulation of blindness as lead by a visually impaired guide through four pitch back simulated environments. The purpose of this exhibit is twofold. In an immediate sense it is meant to demonstrate to visitors that those who we often marginalize due to their disabilities are in fact quite capable, effectively serving as a platform to recognize, address, and overcome problems created by perceived "otherness". The larger lessons derive from experiencing a profoundly different reality than is normally accessible in terms of both the specific type of experience and the degree of contrast of realities it poses. Such jarring experiences open a brief window for dialogue.
Drawing from actor-network theory, various principles and techniques from action research, and from fields such as organizational psychology, visual anthropology, and sociology, this capstone contains workable processes and objectives relevant to both the creation of a Cincinnati based Dialogue in the Dark and the framework for a Coalition for Community Action and Cooperation. These processes and objectives are to be constantly ongoing in development, and are only rudimentary in presentation style.
Additionally, this project contains a reflection on both the process of bringing Dialogue in the Dark to Cincinnati thus far, a discussion of post-capstone plans for Dialogue in the Dark, and, in the spirit of demonstrating my BIS inspired work in general, a condensed introduction to my “Theory of Grand Irrationality” and my “Social Pulse Theory”, both of which are central starting points for the grad school experience I am both seeking and planning.
