Learning Communities

"Borders are set up to define the places that are safe and unsafe, to distinguish us from them. A border is a dividing line, a narrow strip along a steep edge. A borderland is a vague and undetermined place created by the emotional residue of an unnatural boundary. It is in a constant state of transition. The prohibited and forbidden are its inhabitants.” ~ Gloria E. Anzaldúa

Who are we? What sources shape us? How do we shift from the people we have been, to the people we hope to be? In this learning community, we will be exploring the different forces that shape our identities, including things like ethnicity, culture, geography and history. Beginning in CWP 101, we will explore questions of what it means to be American, what it means to be citizen, and how our identities are constructed through both our individual wills and desires, as well as by forces outside of our control. In GEG 102 we will be looking at human geography through an examination of the spatial organization of human activity and the relationships between people and their environments. Topics include population, migration, diffusion, ecology, culture, religions, languages, ethnicities, urbanization, development, and globalization.

The community will continue the discussion into the spring with ENG 243 Introduction to Latinx Literature, where we will look at the cultural and social histories of the 4 major Latino demographics in the United States—Mexican American/Chicano, Puerto Rican/Boricua, Cuban American, and Dominican American—by specifically interrogating Latinx literature in the contemporary period (after WWII).