Coming Up

The next two years frame the transition, at Wright State University, from quarters to semesters.  Within the Department of Urban Affairs and Geography we have agreed upon revised requirements for undergraduate and graduate majors as well as certificates, fields, and minors. Now we move to redesigning expectations within courses and programs. In 2010-2011, still on quarters, I will teach Urban Society and Change, Sex and Gender in American History, The American City: Women and the City, Doing Oral History, and Readings in Oral History.

In an effort lead by my colleague Jennifer Subban, we have obtained a Pay it Forward-Student Philanthropy Initiative grant through the Ohio Campus Community Compact to support three courses in the coming year including The American City. The interdisciplinary,
service-learning intensive course will be cross-listed in URS, Women’s Studies, and History. The external funding permits the class to act as a foundation, researching and awarding funding to non-profit organizations. Students will profile Miami Valley organizations involved in issues and programs that impact on women and present these in class. Students will work with selected organizations to develop project proposals and budgets. The class will review the projects and select up to three to fund.

This will be the first time that I will teach the 400/600 level Doing Oral History course back to back with the graduate readings seminar in oral history and I’m looking forward to focusing oral history from planning to publications, documentaries, and exhibits across two quarters.

Along with three colleagues-Enamul Choudhury, Jennifer Subban, and Myron Levine-and with funding from an internal grant, I will be working on revising our core course, Urban Society and Change.  Our goals are to: 1) build a digital resource bank to support distance learning, Web-enhanced, and traditional instruction and 2) integrate an international exchange/service learning assignment into the course.

I first taught the interdisciplinary course Sex and Gender in American History about fifteen years ago in response to LGBTQ student interest at Miami University and it always offers a rich opportunity for discussion of both shared readings and student research projects.

In 2011-2012, still on quarters, I will teach Urban Society and Change, The American City, Readings in Material Culture Studies, Digital History, and Community Development. Wright State will shift to semesters in Fall 2012.

One year into my transition to a new department home (I moved from the Department of History to Urban Affairs and Geography last year) and facing the transition to semesters, my goal is to not overload either myself or my students for the next two years.  This doesn’t mean less work so much as keeping it simple and straightforward-something I rarely manage to do.

Read earlier Tell History posts at http://tellhistory.wordpress.com.