Bursting the Bubble

For many people, geography seems synonymous with the study of maps and answering the question: "Where?" Where is Corsica? Where is the Yangtze River located? Where would I find Buenos Aires?

But to Miami geography majors, this one-word question asks so much more than what a map can show.

 "Geography is really human history," says senior urban and regional planning major Chris Lawson. "It's about where we've been in time, where we are, and where we are going."

Studying the way cities have been built, looking at how groups can be marginalized in their own neighborhood and interacting with the citizens of a place generally regarded as scary and dangerous were the basis of the class Cities of Difference: Feminist Geographic Perspectives on Urban Theory and Space - a far cry from the memorization and regurgitation of random places.

"It's less of knowing where things are but really understanding how they came to be there and what it means that they're in that particular place," says Patricia Ehrkamp, assistant professor of geography, who teaches the course at Miami's Center for Community Engagement in Over-the-Rhine, Cincinnati.

 "For example, you can look at a parking garage from a feminist geographer's perspective as a place generally designed by men who fail to take into consideration what it's like to be a woman in a dark, closed-in space," she explains.   "We also applied class and race analysis for the case of Over-the-Rhine and the lack of jobs, health care and housing that the community faces."

The class is roughly divided into three parts. First, Ehrkamp wanted her 11 students to acquire a common vocabulary: What is a city? What are some of the debates about space, place and gender?

In the second part of the seminar, the class studies in more detail productions of difference and the city from a feminist geographic viewpoint: What is the production and politics of places, urban identities, fears and notions of public space?

Finally, the last part of the course deals with ways of rethinking the city in terms of examining strategies of resistance, community organizing and urban citizenship.

This is all occurring in a once-a-week, four-and-a-half hour meeting in an area often stereotyped for its uprisings against alleged police brutality and racism in 2001.

"I will remember how scared I was on the first day going down to Over-the-Rhine," recalls senior urban and regional planning major Kathryn Lowe. "But when I got there, and after a few classes, I realized that although you do have to be aware of what's around you, it is an area rich with diversity, interesting people and experiences, and beautiful architecture. It shouldn't be missed because of a culture of fear."

Lawson welcomed the change from what he referred to as the "Miami bubble."            

"Here in the 'ivory tower' we're constantly fed the theoretical over and over again and looking at kids in their Abercrombie and Gap clothes," he says. "We're so detached from what we read about in our texts, and with this class, we were bombarded with reality."

That is exactly part of the reason the class got moved to Over-the-Rhine for the first time last spring after originally teaching it on the Oxford campus.

"It's really hard for Miami students - many of whom come out of suburbs - to understand how a big city works or grasp how particular neighborhoods are marginalized in a larger city," Ehrkamp says. "We would be having this discussion and it would be so hard to think of examples of what was talked about in the reading to students who had never really been in an urban setting."

And in an urban setting they were.

"The classroom is on a main street and has glass walls," says Lowe. "It was as if we were in a fishbowl, and could get a very real and up-close view of what happens in the neighborhood."

The view was not the only thing that gave the students a chance to see life in Over-the-Rhine. As part of the course, students were required to participate in a service-learning weekend experience and to conduct their own research while working with local community organizations.

The weekend experience consists of having dinner at the Drop Inn Center, a homeless shelter; meeting with community activists from various organizations that students may choose to do their research and service project with; and spending the night in their sleeping bags on the floor of the Peaslee Neighborhood Center, a place that fosters educational, cultural and political awareness.

For Lawson, the weekend reminded him of how privileged his life is. He sat down with a drink at the Drop Inn Center and was asked to give up his seat to someone trying to eat.

"Then the monitor of the shelter realized I was one of the Miami kids and he apologized and told me I could stay sitting," he recalls.   "Of course I gave up my seat, but that moment made me acutely aware of some perceived higher status."

The moment stayed with him the rest of the semester and remains vivid in his mind today.

"People really need to be more aware of what they possess," he says. "It's not that you can't appreciate what you have, but you have to be aware that not everyone is so lucky."

The dichotomy between the "haves" and the "have nots" fueled Lawson's research and service project. He worked on his own time, several days a week, with the Race Street Tenant Organization Cooperative (ReSTOC) and focused on an economic development strategy that would allow vacant buildings to be turned into collectively owned businesses operated by Over-the-Rhine residents.

"There's a real entrepreneurial spirit in Over-the-Rhine but the people don't have the resources or know the first steps to get started," Lawson says. "There needs to be a way to make these empty buildings into places that mean a job and a paycheck for people. I believe in democratic ownership of businesses and in empowering the people to take back their neighborhood."

The enthusiasm does not just stop with this one student. When asked what her favorite thing about the class is, Ehrkamp laughs and barely pauses before blurting out, "Um, everything!"

"But seriously, watching the students and seeing the many different ways in which they learn is incredible," she says. "Watching them relate and work right next to people in different life situations goes so far beyond the texts."

Geography department chair William Renwick agrees.

"The course adds important new dimensions to our offerings in urban geography, both through instruction at the Over- the-Rhine facility and in its incorporation of service learning," says Renwick. "It complements the department's commitment to letting students not only study community problems, but also learn applicable ways in which to solve these problems."

Ultimately, the class provides students with not only real world urban experiences, but also real world work experiences.

"I think they sometimes get frustrated from thinking you can easily change the world, and then realizing it's often only small changes that occur a little bit at a time," Ehrkamp says. "But I think they learn that even if it's not as easy or as fast of a change as they would like, they can still do something. That's an important lesson."

Leaving the Oxford "bubble" challenged students to see Over-the-Rhine as more than just another point on a map.

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