‘Learn, Lead, Liberate’

A new University of Maryland center highlighting how the social sciences and arts can create social change gets its inspiration from one of the great Marylanders.

The Frederick Douglass Center for Leadership Through Humanities, housed in the College of Arts and Humanities, officially launched in April with an event featuring renowned poet Nikki Giovanni. Already, the center has hosted a workshop on book-banning legislation, a conversation with veterans of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and a summer institute for local teachers on a variety of education issues.

“Our motto is ‘Learn, lead, liberate,’ so everything we do is really trying to think about how we can encourage access to education, encourage people to be leaders, and think about the notion of equity in every component of society on and off campus,” says Director and English Professor GerShun Avilez.