Learning through Praxis: Developing community partnerships for holistic education and social change

Dean of Teaching and Learning Seminar Series
Wednesday, March 6, 2024 - 10:00 to 14:00
MUSSI Seminar Room
 
Learning through Praxis:
Developing community partnerships for holistic education and social change
 
Dr Jerry Shannon, Assoc. Professor, Departments of Geography and Financial Planning, Housing, and Consumer Economics, and Director of the Community Mapping Lab, University of Georgia
 
Wednesday, 6 March 2024, 10am-2pm, MUSSI Seminar Room, Iontas Building, 2nd Floor
 
The Dean of Teaching and Learning in conjunction with the Department of Geography are delighted to host this event.
 
Please see below for full event details -
 
Masterclass Details
 
9.30am -10.00am: Welcome Refreshments, MUSSI Kitchen
 
10.00am-11.30am: Session 1: Community geography, social engagement, and the public university classroom
 
A core argument for community-engaged pedagogy is that it places learning in its social context. Through work outside the university, students do not just gain real world experience. They also engage with ethical questions about how their work is beneficial for a broader public and how best to create a better society. In this talk, I describe how one framework for engaged scholarship, community geography, provides a model of engaged scholarship, describing how the Community Mapping Lab at the University of Georgia has provided students with opportunities to work with a diverse range of community partners around issues of race and social inequality in our university town. An open discussion will follow the talk. Please follow this link to join online.
 
11.30am -12.15pm: Lunch break and informal discussion, MUSSI kitchen
 
12.15pm -1.45pm: Session 2: Workshop: Building equitable partnerships for engaged learning and social change
 
Community engagement within universities often takes the form of community service, with students volunteering to support local organizations. Yet community engagement can be more than just service. In this workshop, participants will work through key guidelines for building mutually beneficial, socially transformative partnerships with community partners in their courses.
 
1.45pm -2.15pm: Refreshments and informal discussion, MUSSI kitchen
 
Dr Jerry Shannon is an Associate Professor in Geography and in Financial Planning, Housing, and Consumer Economics at the University of Georgia. His broad interests are in urban development and inequality, geographic information systems, and place effects on health. More specifically, his research focuses on the role of maps and spatial analysis in shaping our understanding of hunger, housing, poverty, and neighborhood development. He is also interested in the role of participatory research methods in mobilizing community action around these issues. He is Director of the Community Mapping Lab at UGA. He has published in Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Progress in Human Geography, Social Science and Medicine, American Journal of Public Health, and Health Affairs.
 
This Masterclass is co-funded by the Dean of Teaching and Learning and the Department of Geography. Thank you also to MUSSI for supporting this Masterclass. 
 
The Masterclass is available for all Maynooth academic and research staff and postgraduate research students. If you have any questions about this event, please contact Prof Karen Till: [email protected]