CCCE Associate Director of Academic Civic Engagement and Scholarship Emily Seru recently talked with the Associate Professor of Africana Studies and Sociology Daniel Williams about teaching his ACE course on Immigration this past winter term. He reflected on ways his teaching and community partnership responses had to adapt, as well as on his approach to student learning and the importance of engagement in and out of the classroom. “There were several moments where we simply came into class and had to debrief and talk about events in real time. A recurring challenge was navigating that omnipresent sense of urgency, terror, and anger as things were happening.”
Emily Seru: Daniel, you teach a sociology course, “Immigration, Citizenship, and Belonging in the US,” every year. This year, you taught it as the ICE occupation was impacting the Twin Cities area, but also in Rice County and Northfield in particular, where you have grounded much of your Academic Civic Engagement (ACE) project partnerships. Now that the term is over and you’ve had time to reflect on leading your students through these partnerships and responses, what is a moment that stood out to you and why?
Daniel Williams: There were several moments where we simply came into class and had to debrief and talk about events in real time. A recurring challenge was navigating that omnipresent sense of urgency, terror, and anger as things were happening. For instance, we had class the day after Alex Pretti was killed, and I had to figure out how to address that and how it fit into our course material.
One very memorable activity was the gift bag project we participated in for local immigrant families at Mercado Local. This was incredibly energizing for both the students and me because it moved beyond the abstract; we were doing real work with real people in the community. We stepped outside of our roles as students and faculty and connected with Northfield residents of all ages. There was music, cake to celebrate a birthday, and a real sense of shared celebration and importance. A third moment was our opening event with a retired lawyer and Northfield activist who spoke about the local ICE alert system and rapid response line. Her tone was shocking and somewhat frightening as she shifted from discussing Northfield’s response supporting local Immigrant community members to warning the students about their own safety. She was clear that for students of color and those from immigrant backgrounds, being profiled is a matter of life and death. That shift was palpable; it made us realize we weren’t just there to study or help—we were actually implicated in what was happening.
Emily Seru: What has been your approach to teaching ACE courses, and what values drive your design and practice?
Daniel Williams: Over the past few years at Carleton, I have increasingly focused on local engagement. While there is much happening in the Twin Cities, working locally feels immediate and relevant to both Northfield’s Latine community and our students. I also deeply value situated knowledge, which means respecting the lived experience and expertise of the community members we work with. This can get complicated, as we saw in a previous ACE project where students had to navigate the tensions between the perspectives of an organization’s leader and the vulnerable community they served. It requires thinking quickly to help students understand the complexities of social location and the precariousness of keeping organizations afloat. This year, I also asked students to reflect on their emotions—how they felt during rallies, activities, or speaker panels. Often, academic convention pushes us toward detached sociological concepts like “justice” or “effectiveness,” but emotions are a vital part of truth and justice. Hearing a student say that an activity changed their sense of hope is authentic and powerful. Integrating these social-emotional reflections adds a different kind of rigor to their learning.
Emily Seru: Do you feel like these values were reinforced this winter, or did you have to adapt based on community experiences?
Daniel Williams: In most cases, they were reinforced, though we faced unique challenges. Because of the attack on immigrants occurring during the term, it was too risky to work directly with immigrants themselves, as we have in the past. We worked with frontline responders and advocates instead. While we only heard the immigrants’ experiences secondhand this time, understanding the work of these advocates became a critical, albeit unanticipated, part of the course. This is arguably just as important as understanding lived experience, especially in this moment.
Emily Seru: I’ve appreciated how you balance student choice and flexibility, and getting to know who your students are before finalizing the exact nature of student work with partners you have established. How do you balance that flexibility with the rigor of learning outcomes?
Daniel Williams: I want students to see themselves in this topic, with whatever identities they bring to it. “Who is an immigrant?” is a difficult question to answer in the U.S. and applies differently to indigenous people, Black Americans, and white families who arrived generations ago. I try to give students choices—like which community events to participate in or how to engage. It’s important that they understand that the question of “who are we?” is contested and political; we all make it, and it can change. When they go to a rally and report what they saw and felt, they are declaring for themselves what citizenship means. I also challenge them to move beyond the “economic contribution” narrative. We often hear that immigrants deserve to be here because they are productive, but I want students to think about contribution in different ways. This year, I also had them write autobiographies and share them in class. This created a powerful exchange and context for students to see each other, also because several shared heritage – for example, we had three students with Japanese heritage and very different family stories, for example, and Chinese students who arrived at the same time but lived in very different cities. These share-outs were probably the highlight of the course this time..
Emily Seru: What is something you find challenging about facilitating ACE courses that you want to work on for the next iteration?
Daniel Williams: It was hard to see the “whole thing” in terms of the ACE Project and know what the meaning and impact of every activity would be. For example, the gift bags for Immigrant families activity was concrete and less typically “academic”, whereas hearing from activists provided a high-level overview from multiple perspectives and philosophies. The challenge is getting these varied activities to “talk to each other,” so there is a cohesive takeaway. Logistically, I also learned about the importance of better preparing community speakers. Sometimes speakers spend too much time on basics that the students already know. Going forward, I think we need to treat community partners more in terms of their expertise, and as the co-educators they are; for example, asking them to talk about specific tactics and strategies they use.
Emily Seru: Do you have advice for other faculty who want to teach ACE courses at Carleton?
Daniel Williams: Don’t be afraid to do it. Things can go wrong, but they can be fixed and discussed as part of the learning process. The 10-week schedule is fast, so timing is also important to think about. You want to balance the energy of activities with enough time for reflection. I think faculty are often hesitant because of the ethical implications and the fear of “doing it wrong”. My advice is to work in areas you are familiar with, but don’t be overly cautious. Students generally find these experiences to be a wonderful part of the class, even if they sometimes wish projects were more predictable.
Emily Seru: Is there anything else you’d like to share?
Daniel Williams: ACE courses get students off campus and into the community, but they also allow students to see each other—and me—in a different way. When I was at Mercado Local doing gift bagging, I didn’t feel like a professor; I was just there helping out. The world is too political to stay removed from what is happening off campus, and doing so doesn’t help the learning. We shouldn’t cordon off what we are teaching from how it shows up in our own lives. It doesn’t make sense anymore, and probably never did.
Other local coverage of the Gift Bag event at Mercado Local
Mercado sees overflowing support amid heightened fears among immigrant community Carleton and Northfield community come together at Mercado Local
