ETSU Honor College’s “City as Text” course traveled to New York City for an experience they named “A Classroom Called New York.”
“The course was focused on immersion in the city,” said Honors College student Jessica Potter.
Those who participated spent a week visiting various areas of the megacity.
“We took walkabouts in the morning,” said Potter. “We would go into residential neighborhoods in different districts of New York.”
These walkabouts were assigned with various themes attached, including authenticity, artificiality, belonging and more.
Potter said that what struck her most was the mundanity of everyday life in one of the busiest places on Earth.
“What undoubtedly adds to the vibrancy of the city is just the people living their individual lives,” said Potter. “That’s the real New York, not the persona that we so often think of.”
“So often, when people think of New York, they think of stereotypes,” continued Potter, “or the romanticization and mystification of it all, because we see it everywhere. We’re constantly exposed to it.”
Potter also described how surprised she was by her ability to sit back and calmly observe amidst the hustle and bustle.
“I think we often get caught up in doing, rather than being, and this course was really an opportunity to just ‘be’ in New York–to just see it and appreciate it,” said Potter.
The students were assigned to take photos of their explorations and later post them to Instagram, documenting their experiences. Potter recalls a bodega with a flower shop that she found particularly appealing.
“It was just so beautiful to me, because it didn’t exist for the sake of being eye-catching and trying to draw people in,” said Potter. “It existed for the sake of the people who live there, and it existed for the community. It’s easy to think that you might be swept away by it all. On the other side of our ideas it’s just life, and there are just people living.”
