In this blog post, I’m taking the course moderator’s prerogative to reflect on what we are trying to accomplish in Divided Baltimore.

We are trying to make meaning out of the condition of our lives in Baltimore. As one of our students put it after hearing Betsy Nix’s lecture on how Baltimore became segregated, “With this course, I (already) can begin to understand my whole life!”

We are about making meaning by:

1) understanding the historical context—how did we get here?

2) understanding the forces that work on our present condition—how do we live today in Baltimore?

3) imagining a different way to live—where do we go from here?

And if someone asks why we are undertaking this topic, I would argue that we are promoting reflection, discernment, civic advocacy, and, thereby, democratic participation—-all of the purposes of the American university since Thomas Jefferson created the University of Virginia.

For the first few weeks we have looked at the historical, geographical, and personal context. We then began to try understanding the forces that work on our present condition. In a few weeks, we will begin to focus on imagining a different way to live for all of us. As I have argued in our early community forums, we are not necessarily about THE solution, although it would be great if that might emerge from the forum. But as we come to understand our circumstance, and can make some meaning of it, we will begin to imagine a different future. That is what we are trying to accomplish in this course.