reading, writing, and race in kansas city
I'll be teaching English 225 again in the Spring, an Honors Program section with an Academic Service Learning component.
I intend to focus the class on Kansas City history with special attention placed upon race and neighborhoods. Students will fulfill their ASL requirements by taking oral histories from current and former residents of the neighborhood(s) bounded by 49th Street, 63rd, the Paseo, and Oak Street. I don't yet have a full syllabus or a description, but I'll use my blog as a placeholder for relevant links as I work on the course design.
- The 49/63 Neighborhood Coalition
- The Western Historical Manuscript Collection in Kansas City
- The Center for Studies in Oral Tradition at the University of Missouri-Columbia
- Race, Real Estate, and Uneven Development: The Kansas City Experience, 1900-2000 by Kevin Fox Gotham (SUNY Press, 2002)
- A City Divided: The Racial Landscape of Kansas City, 1900-1960, by Sherry Lamb Schirmer (U of Missouri Press, 2002)
- The Huntsman, by Whitney Terrell (Penguin, 2002)
- Kansas City Soil, by Joe Miller
Comments
This sounds like a cool project, George. I've thought about doing something similar about Atlanta with my English 1101 or 1102 courses at Tech.
Posted by: chuck | October 29, 2004 4:07 PM
Of course when I see the acronym "ASL" I think of something rather different:
http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/mantis/ASLFAQ/
;-)
Posted by: Matt K. | October 30, 2004 11:12 AM
This rocks, G. Your students, as I have always contended, are lucky.
Posted by: mike | October 31, 2004 9:39 AM
i agree with mike, george.
this looks so damned interesting.
Posted by: jdoublep | November 1, 2004 10:45 AM
Thanks, y'all! I hope the class ends up being as interesting as it sounds. The oral histories component is part of a larger project involving several other campus and community people, but I'd like to embed that project in a larger field of information.
Posted by: George | November 1, 2004 8:48 PM
Worley, William. J.C. Nichols and the Shaping of Kansas City: Innovation in Planned Residential Communities
University of Missouri Press
ISBN: 0826209262
Posted by: George | November 2, 2004 2:32 PM