Monroe would have dismissed such beliefs as superstition, folklore. But Ada, increasingly covetous of Ruby's learning in the ways living things inhabited this particular place, chose to view the signs as metaphoric. They were, as Ada saw them, an expression of stewardship, a means of taking care, a discipline. They provided a ritual of concern for the patterns and tendencies of the material world where it might be seen to intersect with some other world. Ultimately, she decided, the signs were a way of being alert, and under those terms she could honor them. - Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain: A Novel
This paper describes research undertaken by Calvin College to explore the intersection of the liberal arts and the particulars of place. This research posed several key questions for exploration: How can the liberal arts tradition serve the common good in a particular place? How will liberal arts be seen as an important resource for members of a particular community? How can we use our city as text to strengthen liberal arts education for our students and to strengthen engaged scholarship/ research for our faculty? In other words, how could a particular place inform and shape the teaching that occurs in liberal arts classrooms as well as the research undertaken by faculty?
Fourteen faculty members formed interdisciplinary working groups to examine theoretical perspectives on the convergence of liberal arts and place and their collaborative writing appears under Theorizing Liberal Arts and Place. Over 500 pages of data from interviews with faculty, students, alumni and city/community leaders were analyzed by a team of social scientists to assess the difference a critical pedagogy of place makes within the liberal arts tradition. Research findings are shared under Assessing Liberal Arts and Place from Multiple Perspectives. Case studies of projects developed in a wide variety of disciplines which connect liberal arts and place are also included with pedagogical suggestions to foster student learning and engagement. Creative ideas for celebrating liberal arts and place are described under the Embrace Our Place Festival. Lessons learned and recommendations for the future conclude the white paper.
Our findings suggest that a focus on place provides opportunities for liberal arts colleges to enlarge the scholarly imagination and to broaden their impact on the lives of students, on faculty and on the larger community.
Acknowledgments
First we thank the Teagle Foundation—a foundation deeply invested in both the liberal arts and in a specific place—for the support that made this work possible. We thank the faculty of Calvin College for their willingness to embrace place as a unifying and fruitful academic topic for countless conversations and initiatives over the past 18 months. The working group participants and the case study authors were lively and inspiring partners in this work. We found the same eagerness to participate among those who were interviewed and we thank faculty, students, alumni, and community leaders for their insightful perspectives and comments. We would also like to thank the staff of the Provost’s Office at Calvin College for their competence and administrative support since the project’s inception. In particular, Dawn Crook has provided invaluable assistance on all stages of this project and always worked with a spirit of generosity and cheer. Our student research assistants, Sylvia Harris and Melissa Rick, handled numerous details of the research including scheduling, interviewing and transcribing and their diligent work is much appreciated.
Over the years, we have been grateful for the opportunity to reflect on place, and on our specific place, in the company of other liberal arts colleges and we trust that the work made possible by this grant will enrich the national conversation. This project has stretched our imagination and we hope the liveliness that we experienced will be contagious.
Participants
Principal Investigators
Gail Gunst Heffner, Ph.D.
Director of Community Engagement/ Provost’s Office, Calvin College
Claudia DeVries Beversluis, Ph.D.
Provost, Calvin College
Working Group Members
Jeffrey P. Bouman, Ph.D.
Director of Service-Learning Center, Calvin College
Janel M. Curry, Ph.D.
Professor of Geography and Environmental Science, Calvin College
Donald G. De Graaf, Ph.D.
Department of Health, Physical Education, Recreation, Dance
and Sport, Calvin College
Simona Goi, Ph.D.
Department of Political Science, Calvin College
Ruth E. Groenhout,
Ph.D.
Department of Philosophy, Calvin College
Lee P. Hardy, Ph.D.
Department of Philosophy, Calvin College
Clarence W. Joldersma, Ph.D.
Department of Education, Calvin College
Mark T. Mulder, Ph.D.
Department of Sociology and Social Work, Calvin College
James K.A. Smith, Ph.D.
Department of Philosophy, Calvin College
David P. Warners, Ph.D.
Department of Biology, Calvin College
Adam R. Wolpa, M.F.A.
Department of Art, Calvin College
Case Study Authors
Jeffrey P. Bouman, Ph.D.
Director of Service-Learning Center, Calvin College
Janel M. Curry, Ph.D.
Professor of Geography and Environmental Science, Calvin College
Donald G. DeGraaf, Ph.D.
Department of Health, Physical Education, Recreation, Dance
and Sport, Calvin College
David L. Dornbos, Ph.D.
Department of Biology, Calvin College
Daniel E. Garcia, M.F. A.
Department of Communication Arts and Sciences, Calvin College
Paul E. Haan
Director of the West Michigan Healthy Homes Coalition
Denise A. Isom, Ph.D.
Department of Education, Calvin College
Mark T. Mulder, Ph.D.
Department of Sociology and Social Work, Calvin College
James K.A. Smith, Ph.D.
Department of Philosophy, Calvin College
Kurt A. VerBeek, Ph.D.
Department of Sociology, Calvin College
David P. Warners, Ph.D.
Department of Biology, Calvin College
Adam R. Wolpa, M.F.A.
Department of Art, Calvin College
Gail L. Zandee, M.S.N.
Department of Nursing, Calvin College