Facing Justice Through Connecting French Literature and Service Learning to the Adjunct Problem

Abstract

This article makes a case for addressing social justice issues through both service learning and the study of early modern French literature, while exploring the institutional inequity of adjunct instructors. It focuses on the pathway of the General Education Honors Program at California State University, Sacramento. This interdisciplinary program immerses students in the past in tandem with service-based pedagogy while focusing on a selected "wicked" problem for several years. This approach helps students understand how they read through their own social position and how they can use this knowledge to drive the creation of engaged projects for the common good.