SEMN 132 Radical Belonging

HILL (Humanities Integrated Locational Learning) Class Clusters

In January of this year, Kalamazoo College received a three-year Mellon grant as part of a Humanities for All Times Initiative. This grant—entitled Humanities Integrated Locational Learning (HILL)—will consider how many of the major problems of our time can be analyzed through the lens of location and dislocation. From climate change to global migrations to mass incarceration, we face the challenge of developing a deeper understanding and hope that might come from addressing disruptions (physical, psychological, social, linguistic, spiritual, and more). To carry out the grant, HILL supports the formation of class clusters linked to specific places within and beyond Kalamazoo.

Our class is part of the Kalamazoo cluster that will consider home and belonging. In the spirit of the grant, courses will partner with Kalamazoo community organizations/members and with each other. The collaboration includes SEMN 132 – Radical Belonging, SEMN 163 – About Us: Disability Stories/Disability Rights, SEMN 182 – Wheels of Change, ENGL 155 – Identities: Home and Belonging, CES 240 (Critical Ethnic Studies) – Language: The Colonial and Imperial Difference, and SEMN 495 – Finding a Home in the World. Instructors for each course will
communicate how and when they will collaborate throughout the term.

When considering the effects of location and dislocation, we understand that these concepts impact students who, for any number of reasons, may feel displaced or out of place on a college campus. The project, then, aims to help construct a space of home on and off campus. By erasing the distinction between the classroom space and “real world,” we seek to embrace how ways of learning within the humanities can facilitate a space to think about and create collective futures.

Course Description

Belonging is a core human need that shapes well-being, enables flourishing, positive development and health. Currently, there is a crisis of belonging in the United States. National Surveys of youth and adults in the U.S. have found record setting levels of loneliness, low levels of social cohesion, and a decreased sense of belonging. reveals Belonging is shaped by cultural factors including race, sexual identity, disability, gender, place, neurodivergence, and age.

To better understand the habitats that generate belonging, the communal and cultural forces that enhance or constrain the experience of belonging we will interrogate what it means to belong to yourself, to community and to the larger world.

We will conduct interviews with community groups in Kalamazoo to better understand how these groups think about and generate belonging. Finally, using interviews with community groups, students will work with The Center for New Media (Kalamazoo College) and The Center for Public Media (Downtown Kalamazoo) to develop a podcast on belonging. This year we will interview the following groups:

Urban Alliance: Group Violence Intervention (GVI)
This is a group made up of past perpetrators of gun violence who now work with people who are, or are at risk, to commit acts of gun violence. They will tell you that trauma and belonging have a lot to do with their work.
Group Violence Intervention
Mike Wilder
269-861-8319
Unlikely relationships forge in battle to end gun violence in Kalamazoo – mlive.com

Kalamazoo Collective Housing
This housing co-op group has group houses with specific themes. I know they have one that is for Queer individuals. I think they recently opened another house with a theme too, though I can’t remember what it is. It could be cool to talk about belonging with people who live in a house surrounded by people with the same values.

International students at WMU

Artbor Community Connections Center
Shawntell Lindsey: Community Leader. She started a small org called “The Arbor” which is there to help meet the needs of individuals in the Northside of Kalamazoo. Community is a big part of what she does.
Contact Shawntell Lindsey
269-443-2074
What is the Artbor Community Connections Center?

Assigned Reading

All readings are posted on Moodle and listed in the course planning document.

Learning Objectives

The learner will be able to:

1. Identify the core psychological and sociological principles that establish a person’s sense of belonging or not belonging.
2. Will understand the conditions that lead to a sense of inner home.
3. Will be able to explain the role of identity in community and how this shapes belonging.
4. Will be able to identify the features of neighborhoods and social spaces that generate belonging.
5. Will be able to clearly identify the intersection of the personal, scientific and real-world understanding belonging.
6. Will be able to critique dominant ways of being that currently inform our ideas aboutbelonging.
7. Will be able to discuss how oppression intersects with belonging.
8. Can use 3-4 new technology tools to present ideas (podcasting, infographics)
9. Collaborates on a Team of individuals to produce a podcast.
10. Cultivates professionalism in both online and in person spaces.

Professional Competencies

1. Communicates professionally via email and in person.
2. Contributes and enhances collaborative environments.
3. Demonstrates professionalism during interviews and presentations.
4. Demonstrates facility with using and collaborating in online environments
   including Moodle, OneDrive, Excel, Word, Google Docs.

Please review the following rules on conducting yourself professionally online: Netiquette.