Community-Based and Community-Engaged Learning Courses
Students can take courses across majors that contain a Community-Based/Community-Engaged Learning (CB/EL) component. Building upon the foundations established in CIVC 101, these courses provide students with an opportunity to combine classroom learning with community engagement and reflection to think critically and deeply about pressing social issues and real-world applications of academic learning. Learn more.
To view current and upcoming courses, please see below. Click here to see past term CB/EL courses. Questions? Please email Cara Scharf, Associate Director of Civic Learning at ces337@drexel.edu.
Summer Term 2024-2025
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| Kline Law |
LAW T280 |
42398 |
Community Power Academy |
Stephanie Dorenbosch |
M 6-8:40pm |
Dornsife Center for Neighborhood Partnerships |
Course Description
Who holds the power in our society? How do ordinary people tap into their own power? How can communities work together to make change happen? Drexel students will dig into these questions alongside West Philadelphia residents in this Side-by-Side course and develop the skills, knowledge, and resources to advocate on behalf of themselves and their communities. Students will have opportunities to apply what they learn to issues that are significant to them and to examine the roles that lawyers and other professionals can play in a campaign for change. This is a hybrid course that will meet for 3 hours of in-class time and require 1 hour per week of independent learning.
|
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| Honors |
HNRS 430 |
42266 |
Community-Based Archives |
Steve Dolph |
F 2-4:30pm |
Bentley 157 |
Course Description
This course explores the role of community-based archives in preserving cultural memory, shaping identity, and nurturing social change. Through a partnership with the Norris Square Neighborhood Project (NSNP), a Kensington-based cultural and environmental education nonprofit, students will engage in hands-on archival work, helping to document local histories while critically examining the global forces that shape migration, urban development, and grassroots activism. Combining interdisciplinary scholarship with experiential learning, this immersive community-based learning (CBL) course equips students with ethical and methodological tools to collaborate with communities in preserving their own histories. This course is delivered in a hybrid format: all students will be together for some weeks, learning the history of the organization and basic archival techniques from local experts; for other weeks of the term, students will work in small groups on self-determined schedules to support the development of the archive on site at NSNP.
|
Other related courses to check out:
- Criminology & Justice Studies, CRN: 41472, CJS 290 900, Justice in our Communities
- Educational Policy, CRN: 42317, EDPO 312 900, Educ Law, Policy & Advocacy
- Entrepreneurship & Innovation, CRN: 41547, ENTP 601 900, Soc. and Sustainable Innovation
- Environmental & Occupational Health, CRN: 41640, EOH 517 900, The World's Water
- Health Services Administration, CRN: 41115, HSAD 500 900, Historical Influences on the US Healthcare System
- Linguistics, CRN: 40403, LING 102 001, Language and Society
- Professional Studies, CRN: 41088, PRST 331 900, Workforce Diversity & Inclusion
Spring Term 2024-2025
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| CoAS |
CJS 260 A |
CRN: 32996 |
Justice in Our Community |
Cynthia Rickards |
M 10:00am-11:50am |
Science Center 110-U |
Course Description
This course is a seminar style community-based learning course that will begin with an introduction to justice in urban communities and examine problems unique to cities. The course format will include lectures and on-site work with our community partners at UConnect. The synthesis of scholarship and community classroom experience will provide a holistic lens in which to explore issues in our urban community. Topics include urban economies, access to education and health care, digital divides and crime. Students who take this course will also register for one recitation section of CJS 260. |
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| CoAS |
CJS 261 001 |
CRN: 31007 |
Prison, Society and You |
Cynthia Rickards |
R 12:30pm-4:20pm |
Academic Building 111 |
Course Description
This course utilizes the Inside-¬‐Out Prison Exchange Program to explore the relationship between individuals and the prison system. The Inside-¬‐Out Exchange Program is an evolving set of projects that creates opportunities for dialogue between those on the outside and those on the inside of the nation’s correctional facilities. The program demonstrates the potential for dynamic collaborations between institutions of higher education and correctional institutions. Most importantly, through this unique exchange, Inside-Out, this course seeks to deepen the conversation and transform ways of thinking about crime and justice (Crabbe, Pompa, 2004). |
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| Westphal |
PRFA 100 001 |
CRN: 31319 |
Community Arts Performance Practicum |
Valerie Ifill |
TBD |
TBD |
Course Description
Provides practical experience as a participant in a Department of Performing Arts community arts initiative. Includes involvement with off campus activities with community members under faculty supervision and direction. |
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| CoAS |
WRIT 290 001 |
CRN: 33610 |
Writers Room Experience |
Lauren Lowe |
W 5:00pm-7:50pm |
Ross Commons 316 (Writers Room) |
Course Description
The Writers Room Experience builds community writing skills, with a particular emphasis on active listening, multi-modal storytelling, collaborative text production, and the processing of heterogeneous group experiences through field note-taking and reflective and recursive writing practices. This course is meant to be repeatable, and taken for variable credit (0-3) depending on the time commitment the student contracts for and their available credits. |
Other related courses to check out:
- Africana Studies, 34785, AFAS 210 001, Black Women in 20th/21st Century Art
- Africana Studies, 33616, AFAS 301 001, Politics of Hip Hop
- Africana Studies, 33615, AFAS 230 001, US Civil Rights Movement
- Architecture Design & Urbanism, 34665, INTR T580 002, Global Material Culture
- Art and Art History, 33837, ARTH 477 001, Making Sense of Cultural Heritage
- Civil, Arch, & Environ Engr, 34333, CIVE 564 001, Sustainable Water Resource Engineering
- Communication, 33285, COM 377 900, Communication for Civic Engagement
- Communication, 33381, COM 400 900, Political Satire and Fake News
- Communication, 33965, COM 200 001, Psychology - Inequity & Injustice
- Criminology & Justice Studies, 32999, CJS 372 130, Death Penalty - An American Dilemma
- Economics, 32799 and 32800, ECON 270 060/A, Using Big Data to Solve Economic and Social Problems
- English & Philosophy, 31775, ENGL 207 001, African American Literature
- English & Philosophy, 34051, ENGL 220 001, LGBT Literature and Culture
- English & Philosophy, 33607, ENGL 360 001, Literature of Climate Change
- English & Philosophy, 33606, ENGL 355 001, Women and Literature
- Environmental & Occupation Hlt, 34078, EOH T580 901, Environmental Justice & Health
- Global Studies & Modern Langs, 33962, GST 221 001, Capitalist Development and Women's Empowerment
- Global Studies & Modern Langs, 34770, GST 361 001, Global Indigeneity
- Global Studies & Modern Langs, 34769, SPAN 440 001, Peoples of Latin America
- History, 32600 and 33123, HIST 276 001/002, The History of Philadelphia
- Marketing, 34735, MKTG 620 001, Social Impact Marketing
- Politics, 34283, PSCI 324 001, Feminist Political Theories
- Politics, 34282, PSCI 260 001, Power in Protest: Social Movements in Comparative Perspective
- Sociology, 33984, SOC 406 001, Housing and Homelessness
Winter Term 2024-2025
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| COMAD |
URBS 610 |
23301 |
Civic Engagement & Participatory Methods |
Andrew Zitcer |
M 6-8:50pm |
Dornsife Center |
Course Description: Explores and examines how communities accomplish planned change through a number of models including community development, social planning, social action and public advocacy.
Cross-listed with ARCH T480 001 (CRN 24441) and WEST T480 001 (CRN 24454)
|
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| COMAD |
PRFA 100 |
21216 |
Community Arts Performance Practicum |
Valerie Ifill |
TBD |
TBD |
Course Description: Provides practical experience as a participant in a Department of Performing Arts community arts initiative. Includes involvement with off campus activities with community members under faculty supervision and direction.
|
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| Kline School of Law |
LAW T380 |
25298 |
Tenants' Rights and Organizing |
Stephanie Dorenbosch |
MW 12pm-1:50pm |
Dornsife Center |
| Course Description: Housing is a basic human need that affects your mental and physical health, education and employment opportunities, and access to resources, but our laws often treat it as a commodity and an instrument of exclusion. This course will provide an introduction to the laws that directly affect low-income tenants in Philadelphia. We will examine, among other things, evictions and other forms of displacement, the government systems and officials that create and enforce - or fail to enforce - the laws, and how Philadelphia tenants are organizing for change. This class is open to community residents as a Side-By-Side course. |
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| Honors |
HNRS 430 |
25255 |
Doing Well and Doing Good |
Bruce Laverty |
M 11am-1:50pm |
Bentley 157 |
| Course Description: The course will examine the history, nature and impact of philanthropy in Greater Philadelphia from the 17th century to today. In addition to well-known philanthropists Penn, Franklin, Girard, A.J. Drexel (and his niece, St. Katharine Drexel), Conwell, Carnegie, Widener, Pew, Haas, Lenfest and Roberts, we'll study the work of supporters of the struggle for freedom including Stephen Smith, William Whipper, Robert Purvis, Alice Paul and Barbara Gittings. More than simply celebrating a "hall of fame" of generous donors, students will be challenged to assess:How were fortunes made?What motivated the donors? Who organized and executed the philanthropies for the donors?Who benefitted?How successful is the philanthropy in the 21st century?What needs are not currently being met by philanthropy? |
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| Honors |
HNRS 302 |
25204 |
The Power of Language |
Simone Schlichting-Artur and William A Albertson |
TR 3:30-4:50pm |
Bentley 156 |
| Course Description: In social discourse, using black and white language can sometimes oversimplify complex issues or overlook important nuances. However, it can also serve as a powerful rhetorical device to emphasize contrasts and make a point more forcefully. Critical consideration of language use when discussing matters related to race, gender, and other sensitive topics is essential to sharpen awareness of the potential impact of words. Phrases like ""black and white"" or ""no grey zones"" can sometimes imply a binary perspective, which may oversimplify complex issues and fail to acknowledge the nuances of individual experiences. This course aims to delve into the pivotal role of language in comprehending and tackling intersectionality, particularly in the formation and discussion of social identities. Language that acknowledges intersectionality grasps the intricacies inherent in each individual's identity. Examining language in this way facilitates a more nuanced understanding of a wide array of perspectives and experiences. |
Other related courses to check out:
- DIGM 308 (CRN 23275) - Digital Cultural Heritage
- FMST T380 (CRN 25205) - Environmental Activism through Film
- CJS 261 (CRN 23905) - Prison, Society, and You
- HIST T280 (CRN 25286) - Universities and the Military Industrial Complex
- CHP 501 (CRN 21347) - Community Engagement in Public Health Practice & Research
- CHP 806 (CRN 24683) - Community-Based and Participatory Research
Fall Term 2024-2025
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| CoAS |
ENSS T380-001 |
15053 |
Food and Land Security in Philadelphia |
Steve Dolph |
Fridays, 2-4:50pm |
Community-Based Learning |
Course Description: In Philadelphia, food insecurity -- lacking reliable access to enough affordable, nutritious food -- affects about one in six families. Rooted in structural inequity, land dispossession, and environmental racism, this condition has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic: studies indicate that among children the rate is closer to one in three. Although numerous programs address food and land insecurity at the individual or neighborhood level, few situate cultural preservation as their guiding framework. Fewer still place community agriculture at the center of their practice, and the pathway not just toward security, but sovereignty. In this course, we examine the root causes of food and land insecurity in our city and engage directly with community agriculture projects in Black and Latinx neighborhoods dedicated to fighting it. This three-credit side-by-side community-based course (Drexel students and Philadelphia residents learning together) can be supplemented by an optional 1-credit weeklong follow-on travel component to Puerto Rico.
|
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| CoAS |
PHIL 105-006 |
13146 |
Critical Reasoning |
Stacey Ake |
Tuesdays, 6-8:50pm |
Dornsife Center |
Course Description: Introduces and develops the skills involved in reasoning effectively about experience, and being able to distinguish strong arguments from weak ones.
|
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| CoAS |
WRIT 290-001 |
13746 |
Writers Room Experience |
Lauren Lowe |
Wednesdays, 5-7:50pm |
TBD |
Course Description: The Writers Room Experience builds community writing skills, with a particular emphasis on active listening, multi-modal storytelling, collaborative text production, and the processing of heterogeneous group experiences through field note-taking and reflective and recursive writing practices. This course is meant to be repeatable, and taken for variable credit (0-3) depending on the time commitment the student contracts for and their available credits.
|
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| Honors |
HNRS 303-130 |
15175 |
Aging, Design, and Healing |
June He |
Fridays, 2-4:50pm |
TBD |
Course Description: This course provides students with a foundational understanding of empathic design, the aging process, knowledge of public health, technology, and ways of healing. Students will learn from a variety of experts in the field of design, nursing, art therapy and healthcare. By the end of the class, students will gain the skills and knowledge of how to incorporate cultural awareness, avoid implicit bias and ageism, understand health care and therapy methods, and use intergenerational collaborative design method to create age-friendly solutions. The classroom experience is designed as a seminar, with discussions, hands-on experiments, and Q & A sessions with invited internationally acclaimed guest speakers across the globe.
|
Spring Term 2023-2024
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| CoAS |
CJS 260 A |
33663 |
Justice in Our Community |
Cyndi Rickards |
Mondays, 11-11:50am |
Community-Based Learning |
Course Description
This course is a seminar style community-based learning course that will begin with an introduction to justice in urban communities and examine problems unique to cities. The course format will include lectures and on-site work with our community partners at UConnect. The synthesis of scholarship and community classroom experience will provide a holistic lens in which to explore issues in our urban community. Topics include urban economies, access to education and health care, digital divides and crime. Students who take this course will also register for one recitation section of CJS 260. |
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| Westphal |
DANC 102-002 |
31747 |
Yoga |
Jennifer Morley |
MW, 12-1:20pm |
Community-Based Learning |
Course Description
The physical and intellectual study of the ancient practice of yoga. Includes both physical practice and readings related to the discipline, as well as a survey of a variety of forms of the practice. |
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| Westphal |
FMST T380-02H |
35493 |
Environmental Activism and Film |
Benjamin Kalina, Elizabeth Watson |
Tuesdays, 6:30-9:20pm |
URBN 349 |
Course Description
Can a film change the world? In Environmental Advocacy and Film, we will discover how filmmakers and activists use the medium of the moving image to explore and create change with their work. During class we'll watch films including documentaries, scripted features and shorts that cover local and global environmental issues. Each week a guest will join us to talk about the film we've viewed and the subject it covers. Students will help to moderate these weekly discussions, design and implement survey instruments to assess each film's impact, and participate in a class-wide engagement project by the end of the term. The course is co-taught by a film professor and a climate scientist and is cross-listed with Pennoni Honors College. |
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| Honors |
HNRS 430-001 |
34811 |
Philadelphia, Garden City |
Steve Dolph |
Fridays, 2-4:50pm |
Bentley 156 |
Course Description
The origin story of Philadelphia begins with a plague. In the winter of 1665, the city of London was struck down with an epidemic of the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Hosted by fleas carried by rats across its refuse-choked streets and sewers, it caused a horrific and typically fatal disease in its human victims. Tens of thousands died. The next year, a wildfire precipitated by overcrowding and antiquated planning destroyed large swaths of the city. Commerce dragged to a standstill. These cascading urban traumas left an impression on the twenty-one-year-old William Penn. Years later, now the governor and chartered proprietor of the vast Pennsylvania colony, his designs for Philadelphia imagined a "green country town which will never be burnt and always be wholesome." In this community-based learning course, we will look back at the promise of Philadelphia as a garden city through the lens of its present struggles with food insecurity, lethal heat islands, an opioid crisis, and green gentrification. Readings and discussions of archival materials, public planning reports, and environmental justice literature will prepare us for biweekly site visits, hands-on activities, and direct engagement with the people working to reconcile this promise in their everyday lives. |
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| CoAS |
WRIT 290-001 |
34432 |
Writers Room Experience |
Lauren Lowe |
Wednesdays, 5-7:50pm |
Writers Room |
Course Description
The Writers Room Experience builds community writing skills, with a particular emphasis on active listening, multi-modal storytelling, collaborative text production, and the processing of heterogeneous group experiences through field note-taking and reflective and recursive writing practices. This course is meant to be repeatable, and taken for variable credit (0-3) depending on the time commitment the student contracts for and their available credits. |
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| Westphal |
PRFA 100-001 |
31451 |
Community Arts Performance Practicum |
Valerie Ifill |
TBD |
TBD |
Course Description
Provides practical experience as a participant in a Department of Performing Arts community arts initiative. Includes involvement with off campus activities with community members under faculty supervision and direction. |
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| Westphal |
PRFA 100-001 |
31451 |
Community Arts Performance Practicum |
Valerie Ifill |
TBD |
TBD |
Course Description
Provides practical experience as a participant in a Department of Performing Arts community arts initiative. Includes involvement with off campus activities with community members under faculty supervision and direction. |
Winter Term 2023-2024
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| Westphal |
DIGM 508 |
CRN: 24511 |
Digital Cultural Heritage |
Glen Muschio |
Wednesday 9:00am-11:50pm |
Community-Engaged Learning |
Course Description
Digital Cultural Heritage is a growing transdisciplinary pursuit having components in academic research and applied situations, commercial applications, as well as new media technology development. This class will investigate Digital Cultural Heritage¿s position within the tradition of digital media discourse, potential research issues, interdisciplinary collaborations, emerging best practices and project development. |
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| CoAS |
GST 341 |
24873/td>
|
Organization of American States |
Maria de la luz Matus-Mendoza |
Tuesday and Thursday 4:00pm-5:50pm |
Community-Engaged Learning |
Course Description
This course is designed to prepare a diplomatic delegation of Drexel students representing a country in the Western Hemisphere to participate at a Model Organization of American States (WMOAS) in Washington, D.C. on April 8-12, 2024. The goals are (1) to acquire political, social, and economic knowledge of the represented country, which changes every year, and the Western Hemisphere, and (2) to prepare students to be able to use diplomatic protocol to participate at the Model OAS in Washington. This course is taught as a Global Classroom and a Community Based Learning class. |
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| CoAS |
WRIT 315 |
24048 |
Writing for Social Change |
Liz Kimball |
Monday and Wednesday 12:30pm-1:50pm |
Community-Engaged Learning |
Course Description
Focusing on current social issues, students will explore the history and legacy of a particular social issue and learn from those working to change it. Students will write to reflect on the dimensions of change, practice with professional genres, and gather support to address the issue. This is a side-by-side, community-based learning course. Drexel students will work alongside staff from UESF, a Philadelphia organization committed to a holistic, preventive, and cost-efficient approach to assisting vulnerable families impacted by housing crises. On Mondays, the class will meet on Drexel's campus. On Wednesdays, the class will meet off-campus (1608 Walnut Street--UESF conference room). |
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| CoAS |
WRIT 305 |
23684 |
Life Is Beautiful |
Kenneth Bingham |
Thursdays 3:30pm-4:50pm |
Community-Based Learning |
Course Description
This community partnership course links memoir with life, story-telling, and dying. Specifically, the course partners students with local hospice patients to co-create a life-story for the patient and his or her family. Students learn interviewing, listening, and writing techniques as well as skills in analysis and presentation. Additionally, the course facilitates interactions with the community and helps students to see themselves as linked to a community outside of college. |
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| CoAS |
CJS 261-001 |
23697 |
Prison, Society, and You |
Cyndi Rickards |
Thursdays 12:30pm-4:20pm |
Community Based Learning |
Course Description
This course utilizes the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program to explore the relationship between individuals and the prison system. The Inside-Out Exchange Program is an evolving set of projects that creates opportunities for dialogue between those on the outside and those on the inside of the nation’s correctional facilities. The program demonstrates the potential for dynamic collaborations between institutions of higher education and correctional institutions. Most importantly, through this unique exchange, Inside-Out, this course seeks to deepen the conversation and transform ways of thinking about crime and justice (Crabbe, Pompa, 2004). |
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| CoAS |
SPAN 440 |
24878 |
Spanish for Community-Conscious Engagement |
Octavio Borges-Delgado |
Thursdays 1:00pm-3:50pm |
Community Engaged Learning |
Course Description
This course is designed to empower students with the language skills and cultural knowledge necessary to meaningfully engage in community outreach, service, or work within Spanish-speaking communities. This class goes beyond traditional language instruction, emphasizing real-world application and cultural competency. It focuses on fostering a thoughtful and aware approach to community engagement. Through interactive lessons and field experiences, students will develop the linguistic and cultural proficiency needed to communicate effectively, yet sensitively, while working, volunteering, or serving in Spanish-speaking environments. Whether participating in social outreach programs, educational projects, or healthcare initiatives, students will gain the confidence to bridge language barriers, thus fostering stronger connections and deeper understanding within the communities they serve. Taught in Spanish. |
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| Westphal |
URBS 610/ARCH T480 |
24551 |
Civic Engagement and Participatory Methods |
Andrew Zitcer and Susanna Gilbertson |
Mondays 6:00pm-8:50pm |
Side-By-Side |
Course Description
This course examines the relationship between civic engagement, democratic participation and community change in urban settings. Students will gain awareness of themselves as leaders and members of a group. They will explore styles of facilitation, decision making in groups, and large and small forms of civic engagement. By the end of the course, students will be more competent and effective communicators, overcoming one of the largest shortcomings of contemporary urban practitioners. Students will discuss leadership in the context of consensus building – creating shared goals, negotiating on behalf of lay people and professional entities, facilitating community meetings and other decision-making forums, and the management of stakeholder expectations. |
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| CoAS |
WGST 201 |
25068 |
Introduction to Feminisms |
Jennifer Yusin |
Tuesdays 4:30-4:50pm |
Community-Based Learning |
Course Description
Feminisms are movements to understand and critique gender relations and gender oppression, and also attempts to construct positive visions of human freedom and ethical action in an unjust world. This course is an introduction to the history of feminisms. The major movements that make up feminism in the modern era, in both the U.S. and abroad, will be examined. |
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| CNHP |
HSAD-T380 |
25011 |
Ethics of Display |
Sharrona Pearl |
Monday 2:00-4:50pm |
Community-Engaged Learning |
Course Description
This course is an opportunity to work directly in the Science History Institute Museum and archives to curate an exhibit that critically intervenes with the racialized histories and practices of museums and display. Students will gain hands-on experience working with primary sources in the museum¿s holdings to produce a final product that the museum may display in their exhibit space while considering the ethical issues around the history of museum collection and display practice. The course will explore ongoing debates on the ethics of display while learning basic principles of museum display and curation. |
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| CoAS |
CHIN 202 |
23600 |
Chinese V |
Hechun Ping |
Tuesdays and Thursdays 6:00-7:50pm |
Community-Engaged Learning |
Course Description
This course offers students a unique opportunity for collaboration and engagement through language exchange and mutual learning with Chinese-speaking seniors at the Philadelphia Senior Center. Through virtual conversations and a field trip, students will utilize Chinese language to provide English for local Chinese-speaking elderly individuals, and gain insights into the lives and cultures of local immigrants. The course aims to enhance cross-cultural language communication skills. |
Fall Term 2023-2024
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| Westphal/Pennoni |
DSRE T580 001/PROD T380 001/WEST T380 006/HNRS T380 001/BMES T380 001 |
CRN: 15285/14745/15284/15258/15287 |
Aging, Design, & Entrepreneurship |
June He, Catherine Quay, Arun Ramakrishnan, Chuck Sacco |
Fridays 2:00pm-4:50pm |
Community-Engaged Learning |
Course Description
This course provides interdisciplinary students with the opportunity to collaborate and learn how to design innovative solutions catering to older users. Through field trips to local immigrant communities, guest speakers from diverse backgrounds, and VR simulations in the health research lab, students will focus on developing the skills necessary to generate creative solutions that meet the needs of age-friendly communities, healthcare systems, and universities. The winning team will receive seed funding to pursue commercialization at the Baiada Institute, with space and mentoring support. |
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| CoAS |
WRIT |
15121 |
Writers Room Experience |
Lauren Lowe |
Wednesday 5:00pm-7:50pm |
Community-Engaged Learning |
Course Description
The Writers Room Experience builds community writing skills, with a particular emphasis on active listening, multi-modal storytelling, collaborative text production, and the processing of heterogeneous group experiences through field note-taking and reflective and recursive writing practices. This course is meant to be repeatable, and taken for variable credit (0-3) depending on the time commitment the student contracts for and their available credits.td>
|
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| Westphal |
PRFA 100 |
11319 |
Community Arts Performance Practicum |
Val Ifill |
TBD |
Community-Engaged Learning |
Course Description
Provides practical experience as a participant in a Department of Performing Arts community arts initiative. Includes involvement with off campus activities with community members under faculty supervision and direction.
|
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| Lindy Center for Civic Engagement |
CIVC T180 |
TBD |
Food and Land Security |
Steve Dolph |
Fall Break |
Community-Based Learning |
Course Description
In Philadelphia, food insecurity — lacking reliable access to affordable, nutritious food — affects about one in six families. Rooted in structural inequity, land dispossession, and environmental racism, this condition has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic: studies indicate that among children the rate is closer to one in three. Although numerous programs address food and land insecurity at the individual or neighborhood level, few situate cultural preservation as their guiding framework. Fewer still place community agriculture at the center of their practice, and the pathway not just toward security, but sovereignty. In this course, we examine the root causes of food and land insecurity in our city and engage directly with community agriculture projects in Black and Latinx neighborhoods dedicated to fighting it. Along the way, we will make deep and durable connections with each other and with the land that sustains us. |
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| CoAS |
SPAN 340 |
15069 |
After Maria |
Steve Dolph |
Monday and Wednesday 10:00am-11:50pm |
Community Based Global Learning |
Course Description
The idea that modern environmental disasters are caused not by "natural" forces but rather by human actions took root after Hurricane Katrina, which permanently displaced tens of thousands of people--mostly poor people of color--from the lower Mississippi delta. After Katrina, public institutions like schools, hospitals, and utilities were haphazardly privatized in a process known as "disaster capitalism." This process was repeated when Hurricane María struck Puerto Rico in 2017, only now the effects were aggravated by the colonial status of an archipelago burdened by massive debt, predatory economic policies, and cynical austerity measures. This course will examine the aftermath of María in Puerto Rico--on the one hand as a byproduct of grotesque climate barbarism, and on the other as a transformative catalyst that has inspired a wave of grassroots political, environmental, and social justice movements, both on the island and in the global diaspora. |
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| Lindy Center for Civic Engagement |
CIVC T380 |
ICA |
Culture and Community Development |
Ahaji Schreffler and Shardé Johnson |
Fall Break |
Community Based Global Learning |
Course Description
Coupled with community-centered learning in Tanzania, this co-curricular course introduces students to the complexities of development and volunteerism – from large institutions and NGOs to small grass roots organizations. Students will explore how development efforts can further marginalize the very communities they intend to serve. We will then examine the value of a community-driven approach that recognizes culture and history as a model for local and global sustainable development. |
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| Westphal |
ARCH T380 |
14688 |
Policing: Theory and Practice |
Ulrike Altenmüller-Lewis & Debra Ruben |
Wednesday 6:00pm-8:50pm |
Community-Engaged Learning |
Course Description
In this interdisciplinary seminar course, students will collaborate with community members and local experts to create a series of Playful Learning interventions in the East Parkside Community of Philadelphia. Design teams will focus on developing Playful Learning initiatives for multiple sites, fostering intergenerational interaction and enriching children’s cognitive and social development in the public spaces they encounter every day. Through assigned readings, lectures, community meetings and design charrettes students will acquire essential skills in community engagement, teamwork, inclusive design and placemaking. Additionally, grant funding has been secured in partnership with Playful Learning Landscapes Action Network, Watchdog and Drexel University, which will lead to the realization of some of the projects. For those interested, students also will have the chance to continue their involvement by participating in construction documentation and implementation activities for academic credit. |
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| Westphal |
ARCH T380 |
15425 |
Community Engagement & Design |
Uk Jung |
Thursday 6:30-9:50pm |
Community-Engaged Learning |
Course Description
This class gives a primer on community engagement and participatory design processes in an active learning environment. We will engage with local community members, leaders, and organizations to inform a real design project to be developed in the Mantua neighborhood. Participatory design and designing with neighborhood stakeholders will be key components of this design course. |
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| Pennoni |
Cassandra Hirsch |
15205 |
Prison Reading Project |
Cassandra Hirsch |
Monday 2:00-4:50pm |
Community-Engaged Learning |
Course Description
The Prison Reading Project invites you to look closely at mass incarceration, gleaning insights from media we explore and discuss as a class; from speakers who have either been incarcerated and/or work in the criminal justice realm; and from individuals acting as advocates working toward criminal justice reforms. Covering topics such as education behind bars, mental health, youth sentencing and re-entry, women in prison, and the bail system, among myriad other topics, we will learn together. This course will also acquaint you with aspects of yourself as you reflect on what we read, see, watch, and hear. This course can act as a starting place for the conversations you may choose to continue beyond our term together. Classroom discussion, weekly reflective writing, and a final researched reflection on a relevant topic of your choice will make up the course grade. |
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| COE |
PENG 501 |
12090 |
Peace Engineering Seminar |
Mira Olson |
Tuesday 4:00-4:50pm |
Community-Engaged Learning |
Course Description
The Peace Engineering Seminar will introduce students to peacebuilding cases and will help students understand how engineering approaches can be applied to peacebuilding. In each term, two peacebuilding cases will be presented by peacebuilders from federal agencies, multinational organizations, and NGOs. In-class sessions subsequent to the case’s presentation, students: 1) will investigate the case through the literature and discuss the case with members of the peacebuilding community; 2) will explore how techniques learned in the core Peace Engineering classes can be applied to the case; 3) will advocate for engineering and technical approaches that could be applied in similar situations; and 4) will use the case as a springboard for reflective writing about the development of skills and personal growth. |
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| COE |
PENG 545 |
12103 |
Introduction to Peacebuilding for Engineers |
Mira Olson |
TBD |
Community-Engaged Learning |
Course Description
Developed in partnership with professional peacebuilders from the PeaceTech Lab and USIP’s Academy for International Conflict Management and Peacebuilding in Washington DC, this course introduces engineering students to the concepts and skills practiced in the field of international peacebuilding and conflict transformation. This course provides students with first-hand accounts of peacebuilders describing the challenges and opportunities in their work, short presentations outlining key theories and concepts that guide that work, and opportunities to think about how this knowledge, skills, and attitudes can be applied to real-life peacebuilding dilemmas. |
| College |
Course # |
CRN |
Course Title |
Instructor |
Date/Time |
Location |
| CoAS |
SCTS T480/T580 |
15094/15510 |
Informing Policy with Science |
Gwen Ottinger |
Tuesday and Thursday 4:00-5:20pm |
Side-By-Side |
Course Description
Too often elected officials appear to ignore or distrust scientific knowledge when making public policy. What can people who care about facts do to make sure that policy makers use the best available knowledge to inform their decisions? This course will examine social science research on why science is--and isn’t--taken up in public policy. Based on these findings, students will generate a list of Dos and Don’ts for experts who want to influence policy, and will identify concrete steps they can take to increase the impact of their expertise. |