Garry Hesser

Professor and Martin Olav Sabo Chair for Citizenship and Learning

Garry Hesser is Professor of Sociology and former chair of the Natural and Social Science Division. He teaches courses in Community, the City and Metro-Urban Planning, Religion and Society, Community-Based Research, and Creativity and Problem Solving. He is the recipient of the 1998 Thomas Erhlich Award for national leadership and scholarship in advancing the field of service-learning as a teacher, researcher, and community partner and was named the Carnegie Foundation and CASE (Council for the Advancement and Support of Education) Professor of the Year in Minnesota (2004). In 2002, he was given the Distinguished Sociologist Award by the Sociologists of Minnesota.

“What drew me to sociology in the 1960s was my involvement in civil rights, the challenge of ‘human relations’ in a multicultural world, and issues related to the Vietnam War. I was asking the question, ‘What makes community possible?’

“For me, then and now, the function of education has never been primarily to transmit a common body of knowledge, but to prepare students in an open-ended way for constant changes in life, to be more comfortable in the face of all the insecurity and change that they face, and to be informed, active, critically reflective citizens in a democracy.”

Garry assists students in taking fuller advantage of Augsburg's urban location through wide ranging internships, community service-learning and citizenship involvement.

“My students come into contact with some remarkable community activists and professionals who bring alive the concepts of 'agency', serving as role models for what informed, savvy people and organizations can accomplish in transforming the social forces that shape their context.”

Garry is past president of the National Society for Experiential Education (NSEE) and of the Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs (HECUA). He has led workshops on civic engagement, service-learning and experiential education on over sixty campuses and at professional meetings, including the American Sociological Association, the Midwest Sociological Society, AAC&U, AAHE, NSEE and Campus Compact. He is a member of the National Review Board for the Scholarship of Engagement and represents the field of sociology on the Campus Compact Consulting Corps. In addition, he was a Minnesota Campus Compact Fellow collaborating on “Multicultural Education for Social Change.”

He has served on the Faculty Senate, as Associate Academic Dean, and is the recipient of the distinguished faculty award for teaching. His PhD in Sociology is from Notre Dame and his MDiv degree comes from Union Theological Seminary (NY).

Hesser currently leads the Sabo Center for Citizenship and Learning as the Sabo Professor.