Fall 2026
Social Entrepreneurship
Dates: September 14, 2026 – December 17, 2026Day/Time: Monday; Wednesday 8:30 AM - 9:50 AM EDT
Level: 100-Level
Certificate: Civic Engagement, Sustainability and Climate Solutions
Civic Engagement certificate requirement: A community-engaged Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) course.
Sustainability and Climate Solutions certificate requirement: Core course.
Instructor: Dalia Najjar, Al-Quds Bard College
This is a collaborative, cross-institution course in social entrepreneurship, where student teams ideate and develop start-up business models designed to solve pressing social and environmental problems. Social enterprise solutions can be either for-profit or non-profit. The course features a global classroom, with students convening each week in a common Zoom space to share ideas. Past certificate courses have incubated real business start-ups at BRAC University in Bangladesh, Al-Quds University in Palestine, and Bard College in New York. The course culminates in a “shark tank for sustainability” among and between teams from the different universities. The course includes readings and discussions focused on social issues related to entrepreneurship: drivers of change, from decarbonization to AI; delinking growth from material throughput; urban-based innovation ecosystems; social obstacles to risk-taking; working on multi-disciplinary teams; language, power and gender dynamics in entrepreneurship; deconstructing the archetypes of entrepreneurship. The practice of social entrepreneurship explores the full suite of liberal learning: critical analysis, persuasive writing, oral communication, quantitative reasoning, design thinking, and group social dynamics.
This course is part of the "Social Entrepreneurship" Network Collaborative Course.
Credits: 4 US / 8 ECTS