TEACHING

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My teaching career spans thirty years and four institutions.  The left column lists courses taught as a professor of history, American culture, and architecture at the University of Michigan (1989-2005), as Director of the Harward Center for Community Partnerships at Bates College (2005-10), and as Executive Dean of the New School for Public Engagement (2010-14).  Where possible, I have included links to course syllabi.

Many of these courses were part of established curricula in history, American studies, architecture, and urban studies.  Others were more experimental.  Some aimed at integrating liberal-arts and design pedagogy with community partnerships and public-culture projects.  Some sought to develop learning and leadership opportunities for adult, nontraditional students.  On the right are links to materials from these experimental courses, as well as to the community partnerships and educational-design projects that they supported.

 

summary of COURSES TAUGHT
 

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

Undergraduate courses:

What Is An American? (lecture and First-Year Seminar)
American Values (lecture)
Cultures of American Working People
Cultural Effects of Economic Crisis in 19th and 20th
     Century America
Urban Culture In America
Honors Colloquia in History and American Culture
Community Projects In the Arts and Humanities (syllabi, 2000, 2001, 2005)

Graduate courses:

Proseminar: Approaches to American Studies: Readings in U.S. Cultural History
Literature, Culture, and History in Turn-of-the
     Century America
The Making and Meaning of Modern Urban
     Landscapes  (syllabus)
Nation-Building and City-Building: Histories of Nationalism and Architecture (syllabus)
Architecture, Print Culture, and the Public Sphere
     (syllabus)
Master's Thesis Seminar For Architecture Students
Landscape, History, and Public Culture
Scholarship and Citizenship
 

BATES COLLEGE

History In the Public Sphere (syllabi, 2006, 2008)
 

THE NEW SCHOOL

Public Engagement Fellowship seminar (peer-leadership class for adult students)
 

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Of course a roster of courses is only the skeletal outline of a teaching career.  I also want to note the importance of the other kinds of teaching and learning I've done: advising doctoral, master's, and senior theses, guiding independent studies, and the informal work of mentoring, schmoozing with, and learning from students that is the everyday joy of teaching.  The biggest of thanks to all my students.

COMMUNITY PROJECTS IN THE ARTS AND HUMANITIES

(UNIVERSITY COURSE, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, 2000-2005)

An undergraduate cultural-studies seminar in which students teams pursued community partnerships in the arts, humanities, and design.  Projects included oral history, exhibitions, community theater, interfaith dialogue, and environmental education.  The course was a key curricular platform for the Arts of Citizenship program.  Here are links to:


LANDSCAPE, HISTORY, AND PUBLIC CULTURE

(TAUBMAN COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN PLANNING, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, 2002)

A graduate seminar on the representation of history and social memory in the landscape. Students researched the history of the Ann Arbor riverfront and produced a website of historical and planning materials to inform public discussions on the rebuilding of a riverfront park.  Here are links to:

  • the class syllabus
  • the website, "Broadway Park: Renewing Ann Arbor's Public Riverfront"
  • further  information about the Broadway Park partnership in the Past Projects section
  • my article, "Putting the Academy In Its Place," which focuses on this project

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HISTORY IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE

(HARWARD CENTER FOR COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS, BATES COLLEGE, 2006, 2008)

A seminar melding the history of social memory in the United States with a public-history practicum.  In partnership with a local museum, the class researched and planned "Weaving a World," a traveling exhibition on the life and labor of textile millworkers in Lewiston, Maine (the hometown of Bates College).  Here are links to:


PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT FELLOWS SEMINAR

(ADULT BACHELOR'S PROGRAM, THE NEW SCHOOL, 2009-10)

A weekly seminar of the Public Engagement Fellowship, a peer-leadership program for adult, nontraditional undergraduates at The New School.  The seminar explored how to redesign American college-going to better support nontraditional students, and the Fellows developed initiatives to institute in their own program the changes they envisioned.  Here are links to:

  • class syllabi (2009, 2010) and other materials about the Public Engagement Fellowship
  • my article, "College Makes Me Feel Dangerous," which discusses the Fellowship and my experience teaching the Fellows Seminar