Portland: The City as Community in the Past, Present and Future
I originally joined the Portland Faculty Team in the fall of 2009. Initially I was sceptical about how to create a FRINQ course out of the study of one city. I couldn't imagine how I might do that. I have absolutely no background in Urban Studies or anything like that unless you count my doctoral work on Henri Lefevbre and The Social Production of Space. One of the chapters in my dissertation addressed the issue of the uses and abuses of public space as it was played out in the Graffiti Streit (Graffiti War) which took place in the German press and major metropolitian areas particularly Berlin during the 1980s.
However, I was very lucky to land on a team with two veteran city/urban scholars: Chet Orloff and Sy Adler. They very quickly made me realize there is ample opportunity for Inquiry into a vast array of social, political and economic topics related to examining a city such as Portland.Now I cannot imagine teaching anything else.
My approach to teaching this theme is to examine Portland in terms of its history. Therefore, my course is structured around studying the Past, Present and Future of Portland.
COURSE SYLLABI
Check out our Waste Audit (sort)
My Portland Frinq students and I at the PSU Sustainability Celebration. Spring 2014