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Lisa Albrecht
Longtime ‘scholar activist’ engages students in social justice issues
Story by Meleah Maynard, with photo by Dawn Villella
Albrecht close-up
UB degrees PhD ’84, MA ’75 & BA ’72; Personal heroes Audre Lorde and Gloria Anzaldúa; Books she has coedited Sing, Whisper, Shout, Pray!: Feminist Visions for a Just World and Bridges of Power: Women’s Multicultural Alliances; Hobbies swimming, gardening and playing percussion in the Klezmer band, the Tsatkelahs
Lisa Albrecht was a senior in high school when she participated in her first protest, a march against the Vietnam War. But it was her experience at UB that really set her on the path to becoming the “scholar activist” she is today as an associate professor and Morse-Minnesota Alumni Association Distinguished Professor of Teaching in the University of Minnesota’s School of Social Work.
“I found my way intellectually and politically by bringing together English education and women’s studies at UB,” she explains. “I began to define myself and all my work. My writing, teaching and service have been connected to social justice ever since.”
It wasn’t just the courses that transformed Albrecht. It was the way they were taught. “Women’s studies professor Liz Kennedy used [Brazilian educator] Paulo Freire’s ideas about teaching in the classroom, which created a transformative learning environment,” Albrecht says. “My classes had always been lectures, but we sat in a circle, did critical analysis and gave each other feedback on our work. It really made sense to me.”
So much sense, that for more than two decades Albrecht, who is currently on leave to work on a book, has been using Freirean teaching philosophy in her own courses. “His work is about being an educator that creates spaces for students to discover critical consciousness,” she says. “I try to set up contexts where students can discover themselves, learn to situate themselves historically and learn to change the world.”
Albrecht isn’t using a figure of speech. She means literally changing the world. After teaching writing, as well as women’s studies, in the University of Minnesota’s General College for 19 years, she was asked in 2004 to join the School of Social Work to launch a social justice minor. In addition to learning social movement theories, students become activists as they provide a minimum of 30 hours each semester with social justice organizations.
For Albrecht, a lifelong activist who continues to work for racial and economic justice while addressing sexism, homophobia and anti-Semitism, it is an incredible opportunity. “I think my worldview is very much about the notion of critical consciousness,” she says. “I run a program about the theories and practices of social justice activism. I see students reading about social justice and beginning to question their lives and histories. It’s very inspiring.”
UB in the News
New York Times
SUNY weighs the value of Division I sports
An article in the New York Times looks at the advantages and disadvantages SUNY schools have encountered as they upgrade their athletic programs to compete with other major public institutions at the Division I level. UB is mentioned as having led the way to Division I in 1991 and the football team played a bowl game for the first time in January, but the path has not been as smooth for other SUNY campuses. The article quotes former UB president William H. Greiner and UB athletic director Warde Manuel.
New York Times
UB photographer says a rephotograph lifts the illusion that time stops
UB's Doug Levere, photographer in University Communications, is quoted in a New York Times article about the changing urban landscape of New York City.
USA Today
Government downsizing may result in a dangerous concentration of power, expert says
An article in USA Today about efforts in Western New York to downsize local governments and the wave of national frustration over big government that was illustrated this year by raucous town-hall style meeting over health care reports a study by UB's Regional Institute concluded that if every municipality in Erie County cut two legislators, the savings would be "negligible," less than $4 per person a year in most cases. The article quotes Kathryn Foster, director of the Regional Institute.