Walkabouts give interdisciplinary students urban experience
Posted by The Skyliner on February 11th, 2009Jon Harris
Staff Writer
The interdisciplinary studies department has turned its focus to urban spaces with their walkabouts and service learning projects.
“If we are trying to get a job or work in the culture that’s being determined by the city, we are going to have a good urban mindset and understand urban matters,” Jonathan Atkinson, senior interdisciplinary studies, said. “There is a lot of injustice in the world today and the church has looked over that. The only way to awaken yourself to it is to put yourself in the position.”
The interdisciplinary program puts a strong emphasis on reading the city through urban walkabouts. The walkabout gives the students an immersion experience and a feel for the needs in the city.
“We’re interdisciplinarians; we are trying to read the myriad languages of the city,” Dr. Gregory Bruce said. “It gives the students an exposure of the kingdom work to be done in the city and get ideas for their senior projects.”
“It’s like training for how you should always look at things. You are training to always be actively engaged with the city,” Atkinson said.
During the walkabout, the students get in small groups, choose a selected area of the city, walk and map the sights both mentally and physically. The students focus on what the city is saying through signs, empty spaces, buildings, and people. The interdisciplinary department, led by senior Jonathon Atkinson, has created a standard symbol system to map the city.
“My disciplines are psychology and literature. When you go on an urban walkabout, you look at the city as if it is a text and you read the text. Say you are going downtown and you see a homeless person, and you see a church there that should offer hope; but if it’s a real nice or pristine church, it may tell the person he doesn’t belong there,” Atkinson said. “A big thing with psychology is empathy. When you go on walkabouts, you are no longer an outsider. You look at it from the inside out, and you can more easily connect with the homeless people. You are no longer looking at the city, or anything, as an outside spectator, but as if you are a part of it.”
Growing up in Atlanta, Bruce was disturbed by his generation’s mass exodus from the city. He saw a necessity for city work and how the inner city could be a mission.
“There were issues there and memories there that wouldn’t leave me. It is one of those things the rest of the world would call serendipity, but we call God,” Bruce said.
In 2005 Bruce took over the interdisciplinary studies department and implemented urban studies into his curriculum. The students responded well, and they began integrating their disciplines in the urban environment.
“We were very experimental in the early days, as we are today. We knew we needed some hands-on, service-learning type experiences. We started going on walkabouts in Greenville, and the students liked it. They were able to understand what interdisciplinarity was all about,” Bruce said.
Bob Lupton, founder of FCS Ministries in Atlanta, and their partner The Sub-Urban Group were very impressed and interested in using urban walkabouts. They thought it was cutting edge and are very supportive.
“It’s gained a lot of notice from urban ministries and other agencies in Atlanta, and there is a potential for it to even broaden beyond that,” Bruce said.“ People are picking it up as a first step in urban ministries, kind of an emersion experience.”
Many students leaving the program are interested in doing graduate work in urban studies. Bruce anticipates a growing number of students to step into urban ministries when they leave North Greenville because of their exposure in the interdisciplinary studies department.
“I really want to start an inner city ministry. I think a lot of what I’ve learned here is the foundation of what I will do,” Atkinson said. “It’s an extension of who I am.”
“If Christians are invested in the culture, then they need to be invested in the city,” Bruce said. “I’m proud it’s my students who have kicked everything off.”