ASU will reveal plans this month for a new think tank designed to drive conversation and research about social identity and cohesion.
The Center for Social Cohesion will be an in-person and Web-based “idea machine” focused on what it means to be an American and how identity and social cohesion affect national issues, ASU President Michael Crow said.
The center is part of Crow’s New American University initiative.
“One of our roles as a university is not only to provide an education for students, but also to create new ideas and push out new ideas into broader society,” Crow said. “One such idea is social cohesion as a positive energy and a positive idea.”
Crow said there is currently too much focus on things that hurt our concept of social unity and not enough understanding of what it means to be an American.
“The basic purpose is going to be to try to build a higher level of discourse around issues that have to do with social identity and cohesion, rather than putting so much focus on things that keep us separate as a country,” Crow said.
Crow also said he is glad to have philosopher and writer Gregory Rodriguez joining the ASU community as director of the new center.
Rodriguez, who has written extensively about issues related to national identity, social cohesion and ethnicity, said the center’s main goal is to get people thinking about forces that undermine community strength.
The center will take a multi-disciplinary approach to investigating national issues. It will work in conjunction with ASU’s College of Public Programs and the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Director of the School of Public Affairs Jonathan Koppell said the College of Public Programs will be responsible for integrating students and making the center a part of ASU.
“One of the things that we see as our role is to create pathways for students to be involved in the work of the center and provide an opportunity for students to explore the issues that are being raised,” he said.
Students can be involved with the center in the future through research and other projects, Koppell said.
“Student participation is an integral dimension of the center,” he said. “As we move forward, that is going to be at the front of everyone’s mind — to make it part of ASU by heavily involving students.”
While the primary goals of the center have been laid out, the program’s practical structure is still forming.
The kickoff event for the organization on Feb. 22 will include discussions about what the invested parties want to see the center achieve, Crow said.
The kickoff will also include panel discussions about social cohesion and what it means to be American.
Rodriguez said ASU and its community will benefit from the ideas behind the center and in turn benefit society.
“The ASU community and Arizona are very important to the national conversation,” he said. “It’s the perfect location to be located on the front lines of social cohesion issues as a whole. We want it very much to be a think tank that connects Arizona to the rest of the nation.”
Reach the reporter at keshoult@asu.edu
