A Case Study for Teaching Urban Politics: Examining Residential Racial Segregation through Historic Significance of Black Neighborhood

Abstract

Moving students out of the classroom and into the community provides promising outcomes for teaching residential racial segregation and understanding of historical context of preservation. This class provides an exploratory case study of students in political science and art studio who worked in teams to develop digital stories for an historically black neighborhood in a large urban city. Through examination of archival data, conducting interviews, and experiencing places within the neighborhood, students gained insight into the politics that work to promote some history over others. Students became more aware of the importance of neighborhoods and gained an understanding of the importance of history to the lives of people living in particular communities. Students learned to work as a team, to overcome challenges of working in a community, and gained an understanding of political processes that work to hide or bury significant history of marginalized groups and neighborhoods.

Keywords:

• Service learning
• community engagement
• urban politics
• residential segregation

Acknowledgements

This project would not have been possible without the cooperation of the Department of Political Science and Public Administration and the Department of Art at our universities. Special thanks to my co-faculty leader from the Department of Art.

Disclosure statement

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Notes

1 Protocol Number IRB-300010773. Decision: Not Human Subjects Research.

Additional information

Funding

The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Notes on contributors

Stacy C. Moak

Stacy Moak is a professor in the department of Political Science and Public Administration at the University of Alabama Birmingham. She holds a juris doctorate from Loyola University New Orleans and a PhD in Urban Studies from the University of New Orleans. Dr. Moak is a member of the American Politicaql Science Association, the European Society of Criminology, and the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. Her primary research focus concerns offender reentry and the scholarship of teaching and learning.