Running head: LESSONS FROM ROME 1

Lessons from Rome

Angeline T Jones

Loyola University Chicago

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Leadership

Palazzo Senatorio within Capitoline Hill

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Power

Coliseo de Roma (Roman Coliseum)

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Social Justice

Justice: Collaborator of Andrea Pisano (Master of Armor), 1337-41.

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Throughout my time here in Rome, I have been asked to push and challenge myself in new

ways which I had previously never thought to. I came into this experience with an introductory

understanding of power, leadership, and social justice that had been formed from previous courses and

by my lived experiences. For these core concepts, I do not feel that my understanding has necessarily

changed, more than it has become enhanced and expanded to encompass more.

In my first photo elicitation project I felt that I was somewhat reaching when it came to some of

my photos. I could see the meaning behind them and how I felt that they personified the course

concepts, but I found later that when trying to describe my photos and understanding to classmates, I

struggled somewhat when trying to explain my chosen photos and my understanding of the concepts. I

feel now that I have garnered a better understanding of each of them, power, leadership, and social

justice.

When thinking of what the term leadership means to me, I immediately tend to think of

someone in charge of a group, their leader. Even though this is my knee-jerk reaction, I now

understand that leadership is more than just a person, and it can also be either good or bad. Heifetz

shares a great example of this using politicians. When politicians run for office, they distribute

bumper stickers to promote their candidacy. The stickers read, Vote (for me) for Leadership. They

rarely qualify their advertisement by saying, Vote (for me) for Good Leadership. (2010, pp.25). This

was reflective of my original understanding-that all leaders are good. This stemmed from learning at a

very young age that the leader or having leadership was a positive thing. If you wanted to be the leader

of the line, you had to have good behavior and not cause trouble. From this scope of understanding,

those under the umbrella of leadership were inherently good. An easy example of someone in

leadership that was obviously not good is Adolf Hitler. As someone in a position of leadership, he

leveraged his power to carry out atrocities against innocent people. It is the use of ones power and

authority that can dictate, not only what type of leader they are, but also what type of leadership they
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provide for those who choose to follow her or him. Leadership, to me, is the ability to leverage ones

own power and authority within a given context to influence those around them toward a common goal.

I understand that leadership can and should be adaptive as well.

I chose to use a photo of the Senate as my depiction of leadership because as a very visual

person, I constantly look for visual cues or representation of the concepts I am looking to understand.

The Senate, as the seat of political power in the city of Rome personified leadership for me in that it

can clearly be used for leadership toward positive or negative outcomes. By using the power and

authority that come along with this seat of influence personal, negative, and self-serving agendas may

be advanced, but in the same right, so could positive agendas for the advancement of the community as

a whole. This leadership, however, cannot be achieved without defining and understanding the role of

power.

Coming into this course, I had a very blurry understanding of what power meant. I had only

ever discussed it in relation to oppression and the relationship that exists between the two. Also, many

of my frames of reference were from a racial standpoint and how power and oppression work together

to keep one race systematically superior to another. I now define and understand power as the ability to

change the behaviors of others. This could entail causing individuals to perform acts or engage in

things that they would normally not do. I chose a photo of The Coliseum to showcase this concept of

power. Power and authority, or the right to direct others toward a common goal, are very much terms

that have become very close in my thinking. This is not to say that they are one in the same, because

they are certainly not, but to say that they are very much interwoven in the ways in which we can see

them played out throughout history and even today. In history, we can see this in The Coliseum when

men were forced to fight for their lives; forced by those with the power to make them do so. When

referring to Vecchios 2009 writing, I believe it could be argued that this would be either coercive or

reward power (pp.71). Coercive power, in that fear tactics could have been use to get the men to fight,
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or reward power, in that if they did indeed fight and win, they could be granted their freedom. Before

fully understanding what power meant, I wondered what would compel someone to want to engage in

such actions. After learning that it was not a choice for all of them to do so and that these warriors

were not only fighting for their lives, but also for the possibility of freedom, it seems almost justifiable.

However, it still begs the questions of what makes good people do bad things and at what cost is

something worth taking another life? I am still struggling with these questions and I am not sure that I

will come to a conclusion soon, but it is something that I plan to continue to work through.

For social justice I chose a photo that I took when at The Museo dell'Opera del Duomo in

Florence. As part of a larger installation this particular piece showcases Justice by Andrea Pisano. I

chose this for a couple of reasons. The first being that justice is personified as a female figure. In terms

of social justice this spoke to me because it brings up one of the biggest injustices that I notice on a

regular basis. So while I feel that it personifies social justice it also brings about notions of injustices.

Identifying as a woman and a person of color I hold identities that have marginalized me. In Ann

Perkins' 2009 piece, she wrote of the male dominated culture that is pervasive in the US and western

culture. Drawing from Hoyt (2007) Perkins stated, While the idea of male ascendancy has been sorely

tested in the last 30 or so years, women are still woefully underrepresented in the highest leadership

positions. (pp. 79). Without stepping onto my feminist soapbox, I must say that I find it appalling that

even with advanced degrees in my field, I still make less than my male counterparts. However, this is

not a new concept. Heifetz (2010) refers to the 1980s by saying that, Women were not even

considered candidates for greatness.(pp.20).

My personal view of social justice is equity for all regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual

orientation, or any other identity that may marginalized one person from another. In keeping with this,

my photo showing justice spoke strongly to me in that it shows that while finding justice or fighting for

justice has been spoken of for centuries now we have yet to attain it for all groups. Understanding that
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this particular sculpture is most likely representing justice in more of a political or justice system lens, I

feel that the same concept applies. The scales are inherently tipped against those with marginalized,

target identities and in favor of those with privileged, agent identities. By naming the injustices that

occur, we can combat them to even the scales. I do not know that my personal definition of social

justice has changed more than it has enhanced. I feel that I finally have the words and vocabulary

needed to voice my thoughts.

Overall, this learning experience has greatly enhanced the ways in which I view the concepts of

power, leadership, authority, and social justice. Coming in with a basis of knowledge upon which to

build on was helpful, but I feel that it has the potential to be just a beneficial for someone coming in

with no prior knowledge. By better understanding these concepts I can now see where my professional

path lies within the mix of these concepts. I am able to recognize where injustices have occurred as

well as instances where power and authority were conflated or abused. Going forward, I will take this

knowledge and arm myself with it. This course has empowered me to move from a state of

comfortability and avoidance of change out of fear, to a place where I would rather risk uncertainty

than allow more injustices to occur. I will also continue to work through some of the ambiguity that

these concepts can leave us with. The question of what makes a good person do bad things is such a

salient question that can be applied to so many different contexts, I believe that possibly more concrete

examples or experiencing something like this first hand will help me continue to work through this. In

conclusion, I will continue to take these concepts and recognize them in my everyday interactions with

administration and staff with the goal of naming the injustices that occur with the end goal of resolution

in mind.
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References

Heifetz, R. (2010). Leadership and Values. In R. A. Couto (ed.), Political and civic leadership: \

A reference handbook (pp.12-27). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Hoyt, C. L. (2007). Women and leadership. In P. G. Northouse, Leadership: Theory and practice

(4th ed., pp. 265-299). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Perkins, A. W. (2009). Global Leadership Study. Journal of Leadership Education, 8(2), 72-87.

doi:10.12806/v8/i2/tf2

Vecchio, R. P. (2007). Leadership: Understanding the dynamics of power and influence in

organizations (2nd ed.). Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.