16.00 Credits
Faculty: Anne Fischel (media, community studies), Lin Nelson (public health, environmental studies, community studies) Major areas of study include community studies, public health, media production, media analysis, environmental studies, labor studies, popular education and participatory research. Class Standing: Sophomores or above; transfer students welcome. Prerequisites: Some community service experience desirable. Faculty signature required (see below). Faculty Signature: Students must interview with the faculty at the Academic Fair, May 16, 2007, to discuss their interest in the program. Some background in community service or studies is useful, but not required. For information, contact Anne Fischel, (360) 867-6416 or fischela@evergreen. edu or Lin Nelson, (360) 867-6056 or nelsonl@evergreen. edu. Interviews conducted by the Academic Fair will be given priority. Qualified students will be accepted until the program fills. Local Knowledge is a program focused on the theory and practice of community-based work, using video, oral history, participatory research, and other forms of activist learning. Our goal is to develop frameworks, methodologies, strategies and skills for collaborating with local communities. We hope to work closely with people in the region and support their efforts to sustain and empower their communities. We believe local knowledge is a valuable base from which to construct responses to new challenges, one which we, as collaborators, need to understand and incorporate into our work. The history and identity of a community are inscribed in stories, documents, images, places, forms of knowing and social practice. The ways communities define problems, envision solutions and plan for the future are both enabled and limited by this collectively held sense of history and identity. But communities are also shaped by institutions¡ªgovernment, mass media, globalized corporations, and academic and policy expertise¡ªthat are far removed from local values and experience. As centers of power and decision-making move out of local reach, community knowledge and experience are marginalized. What is at stake here is the capacity of local people to be informed and empowered citizens, creatively identifying, confronting and resolving the social, economic, political, cultural and environmental challenges they face. We will learn from locally initiated efforts and participate in ongoing projects that tackle problems local citizens have identified and begun to address. Through reading, field trips, film screenings, meetings with community mentors and archival research we will develop our knowledge of four local communities: Tacoma, Shelton, Centralia and Olympia. As we shape these case studies, we will ask: What sense of history, identity and common experience guides these communities What challenges do community members confront, and how are these being defined and evaluated How does a community's ability to define and represent itself affect its relationship to regional or national policies, issues and debates How does "expert" information and input affect how communities identify and solve problems What regional, national, or international networks can offer information or support to local struggles Our studies will draw from the literature of popular education, community-based research, environmental studies, public health, political economy and media analysis. We will learn how to conduct research and analyze locally held knowledge, support community initiatives and implement projects for sustainable community development. We will familiarize ourselves with community resources and develop relationships with community members and organizations. We will learn skills in documentary video, media literacy, historical research, oral history and the use of government documents. We will develop a strong sense of local place, story, history and culture. Through these studies we will build a base for collaborative commun