AMST 422: Preserving Places, Making Spaces in Baltimore/AMST 680: Community in America

Thursdays 2:30-5:00 pm
Instructor: Nicole King Ph.D.

In the Preserving Places course students will analyze previous research from the Baltimore Traces project and conduct original research on historic neighborhoods in the city. Students will also conduct oral history interviews to better understand the connections between the decline in manufacturing and the rise of arts, entertainment, and tourism in Baltimore.

The semester will include a focus on places in the historic industrial hub of extreme south Baltimore—Brooklyn and Curtis Bay—for both the Mapping Baybrook website and the Mapping Dialogues event (funded by a Maryland Humanities Council grant) at the Baltimore Museum of Industry on April 5. The course connects the effects of deindustrialization in Baltimore with the exploration of a “new economy” where arts, entertainment, and tourism are touted as reviving, or as some say “saving,” the city. Will the arts help Baltimore grow or do arts districts lead to gentrification and replicate the history of structural inequality in the city?

Students will explore this and other questions in the process of producing a radio series for The Marc Steiner Show WEAA 88.9. Students will learn the skills of critical analysis, interviewing, radio production, and applied research in developing the skills to “meet people where they are” and explore the past, present, and future of Baltimore.