MPA Program at CCNY
Last week, Professor Carl Hamad-Lipscombe hosted a discussion in his MPA Capstone class titled “Finding Your Role in the Fight for Social Change” with special guest Deepa Iyer.
Iyer is a writer, lawyer, and activist who has been active in social movements for more than two decades. Her recent book, Social Change Now: A Guide for Reflection and Connection, is required reading for the capstone course. The book builds upon Iyer’s ideas, developed through years of practice, about how people and organizations working for social justice can identify their roles within a broader network of interrelated efforts to challenge the status quo. These ideas crystallized in Iyer’s social change ecosystem map, which in recent years has been widely circulated and used by diverse social movement organizations. Her new book explains and contextualizes the map and provides practical workshop tools for people and groups who wish to apply the concepts to their work.
The capstone project is the culminating experience in which MPA students apply the skills and concepts learned in their courses to real-world challenges. This semester, Professor Hamad-Lipscombe is guiding MPA students as they apply social change strategies to semester-long group projects with client organizations that have partnered with the MPA Program.
Part of the conversation between Hamad-Lipscombe and Iyer was recorded and posted as an episode of the Dismantling Injustice Podcast, a project of the Envision Freedom Fund, of which Hamad-Lipscombe is the executive director in addition to his role as a professor for MPA students.
Partnering with seasoned social movement leaders like Hamad-Lipscombe to teach our students reflects the MPA Program's commitment to breaking down the walls between the classroom and the professional community and keeping our curriculum up-to-date and relevant.
Read more about our practitioner faculty.