Each year, students representingnearly 40states—andjust as many internationalcountries—descend upon 91ֱ’s campus. For nine months, theycomprisea racially and geographically diverse sub-communitywithinthe Belfield neighborhood, housedinLa 91ֱ’s pocket of Northwest Philadelphia.
How much doLa 91ֱ’s studentsknow about their home away from home?
“Anecdotally, they have told us they don’t know a lot,” Maureen O’Connell, Ph.D., an associate professor of religion and theology, said of her students. “Then, they havethisepiphany.”
For a select group of students, their sharedmoment of clarity stemsfroma Together and By Association(TABA)course co-led by O’Connell and Candace Robertson-James,DrPH,assistant professor and chair ofthe Department ofUrban PublicHealthand Nutrition.
TABA courses are developed regularly and introduced annually into the course catalogue at La 91ֱ.The TABA course framework brings togetherLa 91ֱfaculty members from multiple disciplinestoprovideunique and interrelated undergraduate study. Theinstructorsapproachoneparticular topicfrom different academic vantage points, whileadoptingsimilar materials like textbooks, speakers, and in-class experiences.
For three years,O’Connell and Robertson-Jameshavedirectedseparatebut connectedcohorts of first-year students in a TABA course entitled, “Welcome to Belfield.” Using a community-engaged learning model, the course introducessome ofLa 91ֱ’s neweststudents to the University’s historic Belfield neighborhood. O’Connell’s section dives intotheneighborhood’sreligious identity and sense of belonging, while analyzing its history, beliefs, values, and diverse cultures. Robertson-James’seminarinvites students to explore urban life through the lens of public health challenges and concerns. These include housing, transportation, faith, crime, and healthcare access, and their transitive relationship tohealth.
“Studentsrealize pretty quickly that this course is so different than anything else they have ever taken, and they routinely tell us that,”Robertson-James said. “This doesn’t happen by accident. The richness of Welcome to Belfield, the ability to look at the same issue through multiple disciplines, requires collaboration and a commitment to innovative teaching methods and the University’s mission of teaching and learning. These TABA courses are one example of what sets La 91ֱ apart.”
La 91ֱ moved its campus to the Belfield neighborhood in Northwest Philadelphia in 1930. Welcome to Belfield challenges La 91ֱ students to view the University’s locale as “a place where people come, rather than one people pass through,” O’Connell said, using this as an explanation for how the course was born.“We have lots to learn from the luminaries who have lived here.”
The course is designed to exploreuncomfortable topics.
“Studentsrealize pretty quickly that this course is so different than anything else they have ever taken, and they routinely tell us that,”Robertson-James said. “This doesn’t happen by accident. The richness of Welcome to Belfield, the ability to look at the same issue through multiple disciplines, requires collaboration and a commitment to innovative teaching methods and the University’s mission of teaching and learning. These TABA courses are one example of what sets La 91ֱ apart.”
They discusstheunwillingnessof banksin the 1930sto award loansandmortgages toPhiladelphians fromminorityandimmigrant communities. This practice,more commonly referred to as redlining,historically contributed tostallingneighborhoodintegration, catalyzingthe racial wealth gap,and preventingthe creation of cosmopolitan gathering spaces.
Theyopen upabout institutionalized racism and determinants of health. They consider the ways religious communities shape the neighborhood, and how La 91ֱ canpositively influence the way in which its residents live, learn, and work.
“One of the most challenging, but important, things we attempt to do in the course is to recognize the University’s connection to policies, structures, and cultures that fractured the Belfield neighborhood,” said O’Connell.“When we speak honestly about our past, we are better able to imagine different futures.”
As a baseline, in the earliest days of the course, studentsareencouraged toshare whatthey know about Belfield.
“We push against the grain,” Robertson-James said, “and, in only 15 weeks, the students unpack narratives of the neighborhood and community that get passed down and,by the endof the semester,aregettingmore involved and more connectedtotheir neighborhood.”
The class and its activities “awaken students to inequality and enliven in them a sense of agency, to become agents of social change,” said Maureen O’Connell, Ph.D., an associate professor of religion and theology.
Baltimore native Skylar Gunthrop, ’22, took the course in 2019, upon her arrival to La 91ֱ. Too often,she said,college students grow accustomed to what Gunthrop called “our comfortable bubble.”
“As college students, I think we often forget there is life right outside our campus,” the public healthmajor said.“(This course) was a wonderful opportunity to speak with Belfield residents about their experiences living in this area. I learned from this course that Belfield is a neighborhood with a deep, rich history that must be protected and respected … and that I am attending a university that is driven to foster change and make a positive impact.”
Bethany Evans, ’21, M.S. ’22, used to think of La 91ֱ as a college campus “on a little island,” with separation from the surrounding area. Enrolling in the TABA course “changed my mindset,” she said, and educated her on the University’simpact onBelfield.
“Belfield is La 91ֱ’s home,” said Evans, a native of Jim Thorpe, Pa., who is pursuing a master’s in speech-language pathology. “In order to create flow instead of causing fracture, the University and its neighbors must continue to come together to create goals for the common good of our community.”
In thefall,O’Connell and Robertson-James led their respective studentson a social justice walking tour that included stops on campus and in its surrounding neighborhood.The tour took students through La 91ֱ’s College Hall, where in 1969 students held a sit-in to protest aUniversitypolicy that required ROTC participation, and to the University’s 20th Street gate on Hansen Quad, the site of student-led Black Lives Matter protests in 2016.
They visited Kemble Park, nearOgontzand Olney avenues. The park is named for British actress Fanny Kemble, who lived on a farm near what eventually became La 91ֱ’s campus. She is considered an early feminist and abolitionist. Upon divorcing her husband, an unrepentant slaveholder, she wrote and published anti-slavery journals.
Next, the group walked to 20th andConlynstreets to observe a mural of Belfield community leaderPhilmoreJohnson, who died in 2005. The tour also included stops at Belfield Recreation Center; Good Shepherd Hall, the former site of an orphanage that had been established by St. Katherine Drexel; and the University’sAlumniHouse.
“These activities awaken students to inequality and enliven in them a sense of agency, to become agents of social change,” O’Connell said.
“It helps students connect the dots and empowers them to play a role as activists in their community, rather than simply being a spectator,” Robertson-James added.
—Christopher A. Vito