Why Teach New Bedford?

Shortest answer: The city will teach itself.

By this I mean that for geographers, a place is a text and geographic learning occurs by approaching that text with curiosity and humility. For the summer course I am offering in New Bedford, I will serve simply as an example of a geography learner and as a bridge to this fascinating city.

We will not, however, simply be wandering around asking questions -- although we will be doing some of that (known professionally as "walking tours" and "windshield surveys"). Rather, we will visit one or two of the city's institutions each day, with specific questions in mind. I have the great fortune of being a member of several associations in the city, and of having friends and acquaintances in quite a few of its companies, departments, and organizations.

These connections will be our real bridges to Whaling City!

The New Bedford-Fairhaven Bridge will be both a tangible part of the course -- I pass over it and under it several times a week -- and a metaphor for my approach to the bridge. The anchor is just a bonus. I took the photo on Pi Day 2018 from the front of Fathoms, one of many local restaurants that thrives on New Bedford's globally important seafood industry.

But What About Why?

All of the forgoing sidesteps the question that opens this post: why teach about New Bedford?

I have thought about this for years, of course, but more intensely since a brief conversation with a fellow whaleboat rower yesterday morning. Returning to the marina as the dawn broke over New Bedford (rowers are extreme morning people), we were admiring the view of the gleaming waterfront.

She mentioned a photo that she has on her office computer, showing a scene much like that we were looking at, but in even more dramatic light. A coworker asked her if it was of San Diego and she replied that no, it was New Bedford. He was dismissive, despite the photographic evidence and despite the fact that he is from Lowell, another of Massachusetts' underrated gateway cities. These are the cities that house 1 in 7 Massachusetts residents and a slightly higher proportion of its employment. They do have lower income and higher crime rates than the state average, but the pathologies of gateway cities are exaggerated in the lens of television news, and people from both smaller towns and larger cities tend to miss much of what the "second-tier" population centers have to offer.

I took this 5:30am photo of the New Bedford waterfront from Pope's Island Marina, in the first few minutes of summer, 2016. It was this or a very similar photo that garnered a surprised reaction from my fellow rower's officemate. And views like this remind me of the loan officer in nearby Bridgewater who told me New Bedford is not near the water.

I have found it very rewarding to explore the city of Brockton with a several first-year seminar classes, and will be doing so again in the fall of 2019. When I learned of the chance to offer a summer course over a two-week series of extended afternoon sessions, it took me about two minutes to decide that an exploration of Whaling City was in order.

Who is my target audience? Simply: everyone.. This is a 200-level class open to all, but I can also offer it as a 500-level graduate course by tailoring extra assignments to the needs of individual students. I hope that this will include classroom teachers from gateway cities and small towns alike. I hope to have at least a few people who already know New Bedford well (they will gain from the geographic perspective) and some who arrive with little real knowledge of the city. I look forward to bringing all such learners around to the remarkable constellation of contacts we have cultivated in this Maritime City.

Much more about this city from my point of view can be found on this blog; details about registration are at BSU Summer.