Sam Fox School Faculty Awarded Grants for Community-Engaged Courses
2024-02-23 • Sam Fox School
John Early (Senior Lecturer) and Noah Cohan (Assistant Director of American Culture Studies) co-taught “The Racialized Sporting Landscape of St. Louis: Athletics, Aesthetics, Bias, and Opportunity in a Divided City.”
Faculty in the Sam Fox School at WashU have been awarded course grants through the school’s Office for Socially Engaged Practice for community-engaged teaching seminars in spring and fall 2024. With these grants, faculty can advance their curricular initiatives and research that support immersive student experiences and the St. Louis community.
In “The Racialized Sporting Landscape of St. Louis: Athletics, Aesthetics, Bias, and Opportunity in a Divided City,” a course co-taught by Senior Lecturer John Early in the Sam Fox School and Noah Cohan in Arts & Sciences explores the connection between the region’s legacy of racial segregation, championship sports franchises, and beloved public parks. Students will consider how race and racism have marked the sporting landscape of St. Louis, engaging with municipal leaders and stakeholders to uncover latent possibilities towards a more flourishing city park sporting landscape. During the course, students will meet with St. Louis’ Department of Parks, Recreation, and Forestry, as well as Forest Park Forever, among others.
Associate Professor Catalina Freixas and Lecturer Bomin Kim are co-teaching “Architecture for Non-Architects,” collaborating with local nonprofit Pocketparks during the spring 2024 semester. Students will co-develop conceptual designs with Pocketparks and Revitalization of Baden Association (ROBA) for a new park at the intersection of Broadway Boulevard and Switzer Avenue, near Bellefontaine Cemetery. The design ideas will be shared with the Baden community and serve as the catalyst framework for Pocketparks to ultimately build the park.
Assistant Professor Kelley Van Dyck Murphy’s course, “Fields + Frames,” will expand on her experience and research in 3D-printed clay to design and construct a series of temporary art installation at Cortex. The project allows the Cortex Innovation Community — a 200-acre urban hub of innovation and entrepreneurship in St. Louis’ Central West End — to pilot public installations and future sites for permanent public art. The installations will be on view through summer 2024.
These competitive course grants are made possible through the CityStudioSTL, an initiative directed by the Office for Socially Engaged Practice.
Assistant Professor Kelley Van Dyck Murphy created Flora Field, a public art project for installation at St. Louis’ Wainwright Building. The project stemmed from Murphy’s research in 3D-printed ceramics.
Associate Professor Catalina Freixas and Lecturer Bomin Kim are co-teaching “Architecture for Non-Architects.” Designed for undergraduates who are not enrolled in a traditional architecture studio, the course introduces students to the processes architects use to think about, view, and produce the built environment.