Elizabethtown College Director of Prestigious Scholarships and Public Heritage Studies Jean-Paul Benowitz facilitated a \u201cPlace as Text\u201d Faculty Institute for the National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC) at the University of New Mexico\u2019s Honors College in Albuquerque this July.<\/p>\n
During his faculty institute, Benowitz discussed his work teaching Public Heritage Studies courses as part of Etown\u2019s Honors Program<\/a>, demonstrating how NCHC\u2019s \u201cCity as Text\u201d pedagogy ties into scholarship from his students and their civically engaged research<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThrough combining civically engaged research with \u2018City as Text,\u2019 my honors students\u2019 scholarship has contributed to local communities surrounding our campus, being listed as National Historic Districts and National Heritage Areas by the National Park Service,\u201d Benowitz said.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Benowitz also worked with faculty members from the United States and Canada to discern how they could implement best practices from Etown\u2019s Honors Program as a model for their curricular and co-curricular programming.<\/p>\n The City As Text™ pedagogy is typically used in semester-long courses, semester-long study abroad experiences, shorter winter or summer term courses, and several days of honors orientation programming. At the institute, faculty spend four days putting themselves in the position of the student, to gain their perspective on experiential learning. In this institute, faculty explored Albuquerque and Santa Fe.<\/p>\n The pedagogy involves students reflecting upon their initial impressions, followed by extended engagement with the local community, and a deep experience and analysis of specifics about the community, before writing and discussing a turning point essay. Students think critically and reflect upon how the exploration of the local community was a cross-cultural transformative experience. Faculty experience all the readings, exploration activities, assignments, discussions, and assessments they will be giving their students to fully test out the City As Text™ pedagogy.<\/p>\n