BreakingGround Course: Environmental Justice in the city

AMST 422: Preserving Places, Making Spaces in Baltimoretrains students to complete research in cultural history and develop related public programming working with a community in Baltimore city. For spring 2014, we are working with the historic industrial community of Baybrook, which includes Brooklyn and Curtis Bay and the “lost neighborhoods” of Masonville, Fairfield, Wagner’s Point, and Hawkin’s Point. AMST 422 students have been working with residents of the community since 2009. The course incorporates the skills of social entrepreneurship—using entrepreneurial methods to produce measurable social outcomes. The culmination of the course is a public event in the community. Students complete numerous hours of community service, including attending community meetings, park cleanups, citizens on patrol walks, college fairs, and community gardening events to build relationships with residents. AMST 422 students will work with Professor Steve Bradley and his ART 390: Imaging Research Center (IRC) Fellows students on the final community event and populating the Mapping Baybrook digital exhibition with content: http://mappingbaybrook.org/  

During the semester, Students will research the environmental history of both industry and the green space in the community. We will also work with “green businesses” emerging in the area and with Jason Reed, who runs the Filbert Street Community Garden in Curtis Bay. Reed received an Open Society Institute (OSI) Fellowship in 2011 to continue his work with the garden and connected projects—which he calls the Curtis Bay-Brooklyn Urban-Agriculture and Stewardship Program (CUSP). The project uses urban agriculture to improve the health of residents, foster community pride, and increase awareness of the need for land stewardship and good nutrition: http://www.filbertstreetgarden.blogspot.com/ 

Central questions the spring 2014 classes will explore are: What is environmental justice? What are the parallels between the disciplines of art and history? Can students develop hybrid methods of inquiry? What does true interdisciplinary collaboration look like? How does collaboration complicate and enhance the learning experience? How can art and history be used to enhance justice in urban communities?

Course funded by seed money from a Kauffman Faculty Innovation grant and a Breaking Ground grant.