teaching in a pandemic
When I started teaching Creativity and the Arts in the spring of 2020, I could never have imagined how my pedagogy would be transformed in a few weeks. Instead of returning from March break, we all shifted online. This was intended to be a hands-on, experiential class, so it was especially challenging to adapt the course.
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By mid-March, some students were still on vacation, at home, or had returned to their homes in China and India. How would I connect with these students when we were all so distant from each other?
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Coincidentally, my assignment about reflecting on where we live by creating maps fell just around this time. To give students some context for understanding maps and social power, we read "Civic Imagination and a Useless Map" by Catherine D'Ignazio (in DIY Utopia, edited by Amber Day).
D'Ignazio describes a project undertaken by the group The Institute for Infinitely Small Things between 2006-2008 in which regular passersby were asked to "rename" streets in their neighborhoods. In this act of renaming, they produced a "useless" map of the City Formerly known as Cambridge (MA) while at the same time provoking viewers to think about systems of power. Street names seem mundane--but "by whom and for whom are they named? And since when?"
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In this course, students were asked to reflect on where they live, create a map, and imagine how they might rename places if they had the opportunity. You can find some of their answers next to their maps.
I pieced together the maps together into a "quilt" to create a virtual community art work that we could enjoy, even while we were not physically together.
If you want to join us, send us your map and thoughts, too.
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--Martha Kuhlman
Professor of Comparative Literature
Bryant University
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