Editor's Note: Microcosms of Hope

When, as editor of this journal I thought of “student scholars” (rather than “students as scholars”) as a part of the theme of the present issue of Human Architecture chronicling the award-winning papers of the Esther Kingston-Mann Student Achievement Awards for Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion Scholarship, I meant to suggest that “student scholars” could be more diversely and inclusively defined and celebrated. It is a great achievement, personally, for students to be and to become serious scholars, but it is equally important, it seems to me, that their families, mentoring faculties, and supporting administrators also be “student” scholars, in the sense of making the cultivation of students’ scholarship and talents central to their own work as parents, teachers, organizers, and administrators. The celebration that night was not just that of and for the students, but also that of and for the supporting networks of all those who made it a high priority to organize and to be there that night. The notion of “student scholars” can therefore be a much broader one that includes the students and their supportive communities of parents, faculties, award-organizers, and administrators. It can be read in both ways of students doing scholarly work and scholars and university administrators cultivating and celebrating, with student parents, student learning excellence. I think Hubie Jones that night expressed very well this broader notion of the communities of hope when he built his presentation so eloquently on the idea of “microcosms.” Jones’s main point was that the best way to bring about change and transformation in favor of a more tolerant, diverse, and inclusive world, is to be it in our microcosms of everyday life. It is not sufficient just to promise a better and more hopeful future, but to try and be the hope and to realize it in the microcosms of our everyday lives at home, at school, and at work. That evening was itself a microcosm of hope—hopeful of what an educational experience can and should achieve. VIII M OHAMMAD H. T AMDGIDI H UMAN A RCHITECTURE : J OURNAL OF THE S OCIOLOGY OF S ELF -K NOWLEDGE , VI, 4, F ALL 2008 bie Jones, Dean Emeritus of the Boston University School of Social Work and widely admired social justice advocate, delivered the keynote address. Aside from the warm atmosphere of celebration shared by all those attending the event, and the joy and accomplishment sensed by the students, their families, and everyone else in the room, what struck me most was not only that we were obviously celebrating students as scholars of diversity and inclusion, but also that the rest of those present were, one way or another, also “student scholars.” When, as editor of this journal I thought of “student scholars” (rather than “students as scholars”) as part of the theme of the present issue containing the award-winning papers, I meant to suggest that “student scholars” could be more diversely and inclusively defined and celebrated. It is a great achievement, personally, for students to be and to become serious scholars, but it is equally important, it seems to me, that their families, mentoring faculties, and supporting administrators also be “student” scholars, in the sense of making the cultivation of students’ scholarship and talents central to their own work as parents, teachers, organizers, and administrators. The celebration that night was not just that of and for the students, but also that of and for the supporting networks of all those who made it a high priority to organize and be there that night. The notion of “student scholars” can therefore be a much broader one that includes the students and their supportive communities of parents, faculties, awardorganizers, and administrators. It can be read in both ways of students doing scholarly work and scholars and university administrators cultivating and celebrating, with student parents, student learning excellence. I think Hubie Jones that night very well expressed this broader notion of the communities of hope when he built his presentation so eloquently on the idea of “microcosms.” Jones’s main point was that the best way to bring about change and transformation in favor of a more tolerant, diverse, and inclusive world, is to be it in our microcosms of everyday life. It is not sufficient just to promise a better and more hopeful future, but to try and be the hope and to realize it in the microcosms of our everyday lives at home, at school, and at work. That evening was itself a microcosm of hope—hopeful of what an educational experience can and should achieve. What was so hopeful was much more than having so many students as scholars being celebrated for their achievement. Also and equally hopeful was to have an intimate gathering of their parents with so many of their mentoring faculty, award organizers, institutional representatives from the New England area, the Chancellor and Vice Chancellor and the CLA Dean of UMass Boston, and Hubie Jones and his wife—all gathering there together to make the microcosm of “student scholars” in all its more diverse and inclusive senses a reality of the here-and-now that evening. I hope that the continuing use of “Microcosms of Hope: Celebrating Student Scholars” as a running theme of the issues of Human Architecture devoted to publishing award-winning and honoree papers of the Kingston-Mann Achievement Awards will be interpreted in the broader sense of “student scholars” as noted above—and dedicated to confirming the reality and to the ever expansion of the microcosms of hope as contained in the student voices published herein. Pictured on the cover of this issue are, left to right: Professor Maureen Scully (EKM Awards co-organizer), awardwinning students Eugenia Trabucchi, Jessica Gama, and Mia Parviainen, UMass Boston Chancellor Keith Motley, Professor Esther Kingston-Mann, Keynote Speaker Hubie Jones, and award-winning students Friday Onyeoziri, Lydia Ginnell, and Marie Nelson.