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Vietnam - Service Learning
As director of the Vietnam term abroad program, Harris actively engages faculty and students in the exploration of Vietnamese culture and society. He has coordinated faculty members into the abroad program and, with their help, has developed it into a successful joint program with Union College. Taking this interest to the classroom, Harris teaches "Sociology of Vietnam: Conflict, Colonialism and Catharsis," which studies Vietnamese history, culture and social relations.
Harris is the current director of the men's studies program at the Colleges, which offers a minor in men's studies and is comprised of several faculty members. Each year Harris joins Hobart Associate Dean Chip Capraro to conduct the bidisciplinary course "Men and Masculinity." The course explores, through an historical and sociological lens, theories and originations of masculinity in Western and non-Western cultures, often incorporating into this examination Harris' own studies of gender and of Vietnamese culture.
Recently, Harris has been involved with the Learning and Mentoring Program (LAMP), a program through the New York State Department of Education aimed at researching and raising awareness of community-based service learning. As director of the Public Service Minor at the Colleges, Harris is committed to engagement in service as a means of putting sociological methods to use. Harris serves on the executive committee for We Care Committee of Geneva and actively participates in community service activities like Celebrate Service, Celebrate Geneva, a day-long service initiative that engages as many as 1,000 students, faculty, staff members and community members.
Applying his working knowledge of society and organizing systems to the real world, Harris offers professional consultation to municipalities and businesses nationwide. He has conducted program and performance assessments in Burke County, North Carolina; Tuscaloosa, Alabama; Elmira, New York; City of Milwaukee Water Works, Wisconsin; and St. Paul, Minnesota. Locally, Harris served as an evaluator for the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Drug Elimination Grant in Geneva, New York, and in the local evaluation for the federally funded Finger Lakes Even Start Family Literacy program.
Interview opportunities and additional background information may be requested through the Office of Communications, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, New York. Phone: (315) 781-3540. After business hours, Communications staff members are accessible through contact information on their answering machine at that number.
Jack Harris, professor of sociology, joined the Hobart and William Smith faculty in 1974 after receiving his B.A. from Tulane University and both his M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania. At the Colleges, Harris serves as director of the Public Service minor, coordinator of the "American Commitments" program, director of the men's studies program, and as a member of the Asian language and cultures program, to name a few. He is also the chair-elect for the Committee on the Faculty.
Among his many academic experiences abroad, Harris has served as the core director of World Regional Geography for the Semester at Sea Program, director of the Vietnam Term Abroad Program and as presenter and respondent at the International Conference on Vietnamese Studies in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Harris' studies of Vietnamese culture, studies in applied sociology, and business and municipal computer systems have appeared in a number of publications, including
• Vietnam Social Sciences
• The Business Computer Systems Handbook
• The Municipal Computer Systems Handbook
• Society, Culture and Personality: An Introductory Reader in Sociology
• ICMA Report