Instructors: Madeleine Elfenbein, Emily Elizabeth Marker, and Amanda Michelle Jones of the Race and Pedagogy Working Group at the University of Chicago

Audience: All ages
Class Level: All Levels

Throughout its history, the University of Chicago has benefited from its location on Chicago’s South Side to fulfill its mission as a leading center of research. A key advantage of this location is the wealth of “data” it offers to researchers studying poverty, illness, racial inequality, violence, urban planning, education, etc. As a “laboratory” and field site, the South Side has contributed significantly to the University’s reputation as a research powerhouse, while providing a source of inexpensive labor and housing. Despite this mutual dependence, the campus and surrounding communities remain largely off-limits to each other.

In this moderated conversation, we will collectively seek to trace the flows of knowledge and capital between the University and its surrounding neighborhoods and explore the dynamics of race, educational privilege, and institutional power that continue to shape the most recent round of “urban renewal” in Hyde Park, Woodlawn, and Washington Park. In addition to looking at how the university shapes its surroundings, we will consider the impact of community organizing on university policies, such as the hospital’s recent decision to reinstate a trauma center. As community residents and university affiliates, our goal is to arrive at a clearer understanding of how university-community relations inform discussions of race in our research and classrooms, and how these dynamics can help us envision a more equitable future for Chicago’s South Side.

Questions for consideration include:

• How can we visualize the dynamics of these flows of capital and knowledge on our neighborhoods?
• What do the campus and community owe each other?
• Can the community be reimagined as something more than a “laboratory”?

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This class is part of Shared Language, a community classroom project and exhibition presented by Arts + Public Life. To see a complete list of classes and events, visitarts.uchicago.edu/sharedlanguage.