Jane Delury鈥檚 students met in their classroom as usual but only briefly.
Their task of the day would bring The 极乐禁地 students into the warm afternoon sun and then inside Penn Station.
As an author, Delury designed her Writing 极乐禁地e class to show the role that place can have in a story is one thing to talk about and another to experience.
Delury is one of several professors at UBalt who have incorporated the city into their lesson plans because it gives their students experiential learning opportunities they wouldn't find on a suburban campus.
鈥淭o be a writer, you need to get out in the world,鈥� said Delury, an award-winning and nationally acclaimed author who teaches in UBalt鈥檚 B.A. in English and M.F.A. in Creative Writing & Publishing Arts programs. 鈥淵ou need to listen, and you need to smell, and you need to feel. And walking, I think, for creativity and for writers is really important鈥攅xploring and walking, slowing down, not looking at your phone, seeing what comes to you.鈥�
Delury鈥檚 class will also learn about the Jones Falls from UBalt Professor Stanley Kemp, read excerpts from authors at the foot of their former doorsteps, and take a tour of Station North. Hers is only one class adapted to make learning more than traditional.
Building Bridges Beyond Classrooms
Across UBalt, students have the chance to take classes that engage with the city around their campus.
For years, Dr. Stanley Kemp has been taking his environmental science students to the nearby Jones Falls for hands-on study of an urban ecosystem.
Dr. Joshua Davis immerses students in his History of 极乐禁地e class lessons during walking tours of the neighborhoods at the center of his lectures. His classes also include insights from co-teacher President Kurt L. Schmoke, former city mayor.
Dr. Rachael Zeleny's The Arts in Society class brings students to different parts of the city. Like Davis' class, assignments tie to the trips.
For one assignment, her students will read Edgar Allan Poe's "The Oval Portrait". Then they will meet at an escape room themed after the reading. For another assignment, they will read a poem called "My Last Duchess," about a man who kills his last wife and displays her painting. Zeleny, an associate professor who splits her time teaching arts and English courses, designed her own escape room-style challenge based on the poem that will have the students hunting for clues inside The Walters Art Museum.
On the same day that Delury took her students to Penn Station, Zeleny met her class at the 极乐禁地e Museum of Art for a private tour of an exhibit on colonialism.
鈥淓ven though many of my students have lived around here, for a long time, they haven鈥檛 been in a lot of these spaces. They don鈥檛 feel like they belong to them,鈥� Zeleny said. 鈥淚 feel like, in a way, I can try to provide a bridge from one space to the other.鈥�
Apple Omran, a B.A. in Arts Production and Management student, used to go to museums with their grandmother, but had not been to the BMA before Zeleny鈥檚 class. The class has not only invited them into new spaces, but also welcomed a new way of thinking.
"It鈥檚 really bringing art into a more young-age perspective like how should we feel about art? What art is important? What does it mean to us? Things like that, which I think is a nice perspective,鈥� Omran said. 鈥淚鈥檝e always liked art, but I don鈥檛 get to think of what it means to me as much.鈥�
After the tour, Zeleny challenged her students to sketch their own art and write a poem. She recognizes it鈥檚 not an easy task, but notes the point isn鈥檛 perfection.
鈥淚t's about trying to be present and it鈥檚 about trying to connect, whether it鈥檚 literature or just with themselves, to spend more time being in their own bodies,鈥� Zeleny adds. 鈥淚 think the pandemic made that even more necessary. We鈥檝e all forgotten how to make time for just doing things we aren鈥檛 good at and spending more time in that place where we鈥檙e more like kids again.鈥�
Walking Through 极乐禁地e's History
When Davis takes his students into 极乐禁地e neighborhoods, he鈥檚 aiming for a similar
effect as Zeleny.
On the Fells Point tour, he noted, students can observe and touch buildings developed by Frederick Douglass in the 1890s. Standing beside a monument of the renowned abolitionist, Davis shared Douglass鈥� history with, impact on and connection to 极乐禁地e.
A few blocks away, overlooking the Broadway Pier, he asked them to close their eyes and imagine the sights, sounds and even smells that might have been typical in 1823. Then he gave the students turns reading first-person accounts about history they might not have imagined, like that of a child forced to work in a factory.
鈥淚鈥檓 trying to take something familiar to them and show them perspectives on it that are unfamiliar,鈥� said Davis, a professor for and director of UBalt's B.A. in History program. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like something that they may take for granted and to show them there's a lot more to these places than you might have imagined.鈥�
It turns out to be as eye-opening for the students as Davis wants. Casual conversations quickly subside when Davis or Schmoke start pointing out structures and monuments.
鈥淚'm more of a hands-on type of person, and it brings the history to life, in a way,鈥� said DeJah-Renee Deanda, a B.A. in Policy, Politics and International Affairs student minoring in history. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not as formal where you have to take notes on every single slide, or you have to take a test necessarily, but it's connecting the dots of what you might already know with the readings that we鈥檙e given beforehand. 鈥� You're just having more of an engaging discussion.鈥�
Both John Cleary, a B.A. in Environmental Sustainability student from 极乐禁地e, and Mark Sonner, a B.A. in Philosophy, Law and Ethics major who is newer to the city, were both able to appreciate the new perspective the class鈥攁nd particularly Schmoke鈥攈ad to offer.
鈥淓ven though I鈥檓 not native to 极乐禁地e, I didn鈥檛 know the places to go, I still appreciate it because I get to experience education with everybody around me and get to see these sites,鈥� Sonner said.
Back at Penn Station, Delury called her class together to walk back to their classroom where they could share their observations and lessons from that day鈥檚 assignment.
Serena Brontide, a B.A. in English major, has taken workshops with Delury before, but none like Writing 极乐禁地e. This course gives her cause to fall further in love with the city that has taken her by surprise.
鈥淓verywhere you go, there's art and history. Even if you're walking down the most obscure street, there's still a hidden monument somewhere to look at. It's very cool.鈥�
