The American Cultures Center
Source: https://americancultures.berkeley.edu/aces Parent: https://americancultures.berkeley.edu/
Introduction to the ACES Program
Topics
- Community Engaged Scholarship topic page
- Course Development topic page
- Faculty Grant topic page
- Teaching & Working in Troubled Times topic page
- Videos - Clips and Films topic page
About the ACES Program
Launched in January 2010, the American Cultures Engaged Scholarship (ACES) Program was developed as a partnership between the American Cultures Center and the Public Service Center. This program aims to transform how faculty’s community-engaged scholarship is valued, to enhance learning for students through a combination of teaching and practice, and to create new knowledge that has an impact both in the community and the academy. Today, ACES courses continue to be developed, providing opportunities for students to participate in collaborative projects with community partners, engage in experiential learning, create meaningful collaborative research environments with partners outside of the university, support reflective engagement on broad social issues and interests, and explore the possibilities and challenges of collaborative scholarship for both community partners and academic communities.
ACES courses work with community organizations building student and faculty research into...environmental justice, prison abolition, Indigenous movements... and social justice.
Gibor Basri, first Vice Chancellor for Equity & Inclusion
ACES Grants
ACES Program is no longer accepting applications for the 2025-2026 academic year. For questions about upcoming application cycles, please email aces@berkeley.edu.
Community Engaged Courses
ACES courses transform how faculty’s community-engaged scholarship is valued, to enhance learning for students through a combination of teaching and practice, and to create new knowledge that has an impact both in the community and the academy. To see a list of ACES courses being offered this semester, please visit our ACES Courses page.
Community Engaged Projects
ACES courses allow students and faculty to work with community organizations to develop cutting-edge research projects associated with some of the nation's most pressing social issues. Please visit our ACES Student Community Projects page for examples of projects students have developed in ACES courses with community partners.
ACES Graduate Learning Community
In 2019, the ACES Program launched a learning community for graduate scholar-activists, a learning community that comprises workshops that discuss community engagement and scholar-activism and the opportunity for graduate students to build community together while exploring the importance of and connection between their academic studies, teaching, and research and their community relationships and social justice efforts. Learn more
Community Partners
Since January 2010, the ACES Program has collaborated with over 60 community partners to offer students opportunities to learn about histories of oppression, racism and social justice in the U.S., by engaging with community organizations and experts on these very issues as part of their AC class and the university's public mission.Learn more