COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
1) CLDR 410/610 -- Places and Placemaking, with Joby Taylor (8/27 - 9/24)
Places and Placemaking will be a 1 credit class designed to support students in cultivating a strong sense of place and developing leadership skills and experience in the practice of placemaking. The class will meet weekly for 2.5hr sessions for 5 weeks (1 credit time equivalent), mixing synchronous seminar style instruction with outdoor in person sessions. Students will critically explore theoretical and applied perspectives about the key concept of “place” through seminar style discussions, written reflections, and individual projects. Human beings charge the world with meaning and power, and as culture scholar Clifford Geertz reminds us “No one lives in the world in general...Everybody lives in some confined and limited stretch of it—the world around here.” Taking that as our jumping off point for a hands-on skill-based class, the majority of the course will engage students in in-person local outings (and complementary virtual outings) that draw upon historical/cultural background narratives, current social dynamics, and community member perspectives to develop their own sense of place and gain an informed understanding of the ongoing local struggle for meaning and positive community change in our Baltimore area. After participating in initial instructor-designed and led place-based outings, students will then design, develop, and present their own place-based outing for the class. Students will leave the course with skills for developing a vibrant and nuanced sense of place, and leadership tools for facilitating that powerful sense of place and placemaking in others in their classrooms, communities, or workplaces.
Jen White-Johnson is a disabled and neurodivergent artist and designer educator who centers Black disabled joy and futures in her work, informed by disability justice and Black feminist disability framework. Jen has presented her disability justice activist work and collaborated with a number of brands and art spaces across print and digital such as Target, Coachella and Adobe Design. Jen’s work is also permanently archived at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the National African American Museum of History and Culture in DC. Jen holds a BA in Visual Art from The University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) and a MFA in Graphic Design from the Maryland Institute College of Art, where she also imparts her knowledge as a current instructor, Jen resides in Baltimore, MD, with her husband and 11-year-old son.
The Department of American Studies presents
In conversation with:
Derek Musgrove, Associate Professor, History, UMBC
Nicole King, Associate Professor, American Studies, UMBC
Upon the ten-year anniversary of the 2015 Baltimore Uprising, we are hosting a panel discussion based on Prof. Derek Hyra’s recent book Slow and Sudden Violence: Why and When Uprisings Occur (University of California Press, 2024) To confront American unrest, Hyra urges that we end racialized policing, stop Black community destruction and displacement, and reduce neighborhood inequality. Hyra will be in conversation with UMBC Professors Derek Musgrove (History) and Nicole King (American Studies) on the issues the book addresses and the future of U.S. cities.
Derek Hyra is a professor in the Department of Public Administration and Policy within the School of Public Affairs at American University. His research focuses on processes of neighborhood change, with an emphasis on housing, urban politics, and race. Dr. Hyra is author of Slow and Sudden Violence: Why and When Uprisings Occur (University of California Press, 2024), Race, Class, and Politics in the Cappuccino City (University of Chicago Press, 2017), and The New Urban Renewal: The Economic Transformation of Harlem and Bronzeville (University of Chicago Press, 2008). He is also co-editor of Capital Dilemma: Growth and Inequality in Washington, DC (Routledge, 2016).
Charm City Books is offering a promo code for 10% off pre orders using their website. Pre-ordered books will be available for pick-up at the event.
PROMO CODE: HYRA10
Organized by the Department of American Studies. Cosponsored by the Center for Social Science Scholarship; the Dresher Center for Humanities; the Department of History; the Orser Center for the Study of Place, Community, and Culture; the Department of Political Science; and the School of Public Policy.
This event is open for full participation by all individuals regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or any other protected category under applicable federal law, state law, and the University's nondiscrimination policy.
This event is open for full participation by all individuals regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or any other protected category under applicable federal law, state law, and the University's nondiscrimination policy.
Sponsored by the Maryland Folklife Network and the Orser Center for Public Humanities.