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.