DukeEngage and the Politics of "Help": Millennials, Civic Engagement, and the Problem of "Saving the World"
Abstract
The summer of 2008 signaled the inauguration of DukeEngage, the highly anticipated
civic engagement program for undergraduates at Duke University. DukeEngage provides
funding for undergraduates who wish to pursue an intensive civic engagement project
for 8-weeks in the summer, and the program’s kickoff transplanted 365 enthusiastic
Duke students into virtually every corner of the globe for an immersive service experience.
The proliferation of programs such as DukeEngage is just one example of a wider, more
recent trend that expands not only to peer academic institutions but throughout greater
society. Philanthropies, public policy institutions, humanitarian groups, non-profit
organizations, politicians, teachers, even businessmen and idealists alike have adopted
the mantra of “doing good”, and have reorganized their mission and vision statements
accordingly – perhaps without much consideration of the idea’s complex teology and
ultimate consequences. The idea of “Saving the World” is a loaded concept that cannot
be separated from the complicated and profound ways in which it has been co-opted,
transformed, and redefined for each new generation. In this project I hope to explore
the complex ways in which Duke students - as Millennial participants in DukeEngage
- imagine and live out their beliefs in the value civic engagement and buy into the
compelling notion of “Saving the World”. Why is civic engagement viewed as an agent
of change? From where do the assumptions of intervention as “good” emerge? What motivates
these Millennial do-gooders? Ultimately, I hope to better understand how participation
in DukeEngage, as well as the program itself, is a generationally specific moment
that presents its fair share of problems and contradictions – as well as new possibilities.
It is my hope that a better understanding of this moment will translate into the “bigger
picture” – how will Millennials envision their role in greater society, and what is
their relation to ideas of democracy? What will this mean for the future of the United
States? Will the world with DukeEngage be a better world than one without?
Type
Honors thesisDepartment
Cultural AnthropologyPermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/1048Citation
Choi, Kathy (2009). DukeEngage and the Politics of "Help": Millennials, Civic Engagement, and the Problem
of "Saving the World". Honors thesis, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/1048.Collections
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