Current Calls for Submissions

Since its inception in the 1970s, Place as Text has offered a dynamic framework for integrating intellectual exploration with physical immersion. Rooted in the experiential learning principles championed by Dewey, which emphasize the transformative power of experience and reflection, Place as Text encourages students to “read” places as texts. By analyzing cultural, historical, social, and ecological elements that shape environments, students engage deeply with their surroundings. This active, immersive learning experience aligns closely with George Kuh’s concept of High-Impact Practices (HIPs), which promote active learning, student engagement, and a sense of belonging and purpose. Place as Text exemplifies the essence of community engagement, critical reflection, and cultural empathy—core aims within honors education and higher education in general.

The history of City as Text™ pedagogy is deeply intertwined with the evolution of the Place as Text companion volumes in the NCHC Monograph Series, which has served as a cornerstone for understanding and expanding experiential learning practices. Each monograph reflects a distinct phase in the pedagogy’s development, capturing its transformative potential for students, faculty, and institutions alike.

The inaugural monograph, Place as Text: Approaches to Active Learning (2000), laid the groundwork for integrating experiential learning into honors education. Bernice Braid and Ada Long presented City as Text™ as a “blueprint” for educators, emphasizing its integrative structure, including field explorations and self-reflective writing. This foundational text established City as Text™ as an adaptable framework for active learning.

The second monograph, Shatter the Glassy Stare: Implementing Experiential Learning in Higher Education (2008), complemented the first by shifting the focus from student experiences to faculty perspectives, particularly through Faculty Institutes. This companion volume, edited by Peter Machonis, showcased diverse applications of City as Text™, including its use in campus-based explorations, local neighborhoods, study abroad, and science courses. It offered practical materials for incorporating these strategies, expanding the pedagogy’s reach across disciplines and contexts.

The third volume was the second edition of Place as Text: Approaches to Active Learning (2010), which was also edited by Bernice Braid and Ada Long. It built upon its predecessor, expanding and clarifying the original concepts to reflect the growing adoption and adaptation of City as Text™.

In 2014, the fourth monograph, Writing on Your Feet: Reflective Practices in City as Text™, highlighted the centrality of reflective writing to active learning. Ada Long (editor) underscored the importance of reflection as the “final and necessary step” of the City as Text™ experience, emphasizing its role in deepening students’ understanding of their explorations.

The fifth volume in this strand, Place, Self, Community: City as TextTM in the Twenty-First Century (2021), explored the pedagogy’s capacity to foster integrative learning, emphasizing its ability to generate a sense of interconnectedness and self-in-context. Bernice Braid described its focus on the “power of structured explorations” and its potential to produce social sensitivity and engagement. Edited by Braid and Sarah E. Quay, this monograph examined how City as Text™ continues to shape both student and faculty experiences, particularly in addressing complex societal challenges.

This proposed sixth monograph will take a broader analytical perspective, moving beyond the practical applications and reflective practices covered in previous volumes. It will explore how City as Text™ has evolved into a model for place-based experiential learning across higher education, both within and beyond honors programs. This volume will provide a historical overview of the pedagogy’s 50-year legacy, examining its impact on experiential learning, community-based education, and interdisciplinary inquiry. Some contributors will likely address how City as Text™ has influenced honors education, the NCHC, regional honors councils, and higher education at large.

Rather than revisiting the instructional frameworks or reflective writing processes detailed in earlier monographs, this volume will focus on the pedagogy’s broader implications and future potential. It will highlight how City as Text™ has become a model for fostering critical thinking, cultural empathy, and civic engagement, offering insights into its role as a transformative educational strategy. By reflecting on its past and envisioning its future, this monograph aims to inspire continued innovation in experiential learning, ensuring that City as Text™ remains a vital tool for addressing the challenges and opportunities of the twenty-first century.

During an exploration of complex urban spaces, Place as Text encourages students to analyze how environments influence human interaction, a perspective enriched by Sennett’s insights into the social fabric of cities. Similarly, Bachelard’s personal meanings of places offer a focus that is central to Place as Text’s introspective and observational learning. Benevolo’s examination of European urban development further underscores the historical and cultural complexities embedded in cities, where physical and symbolic spaces embody societal values and social structures. In this way, Place as Text not only introduces students to spatial dynamics but also mirrors Kuh’s call for diversity and global learning experiences, helping students to engage meaningfully with diverse cultural perspectives.

Originally conceived within honors education, Place as Text has proven to be a pedagogy that uniquely encourages rigorous intellectual engagement and deep reflection. In 2000, Braid described it as capturing the ethos of honors education, inspiring students to cross disciplinary and conceptual boundaries in pursuit of critical inquiry. Honors programs and colleges, led by figures such as Fink, Quay, Badenhausen, Frost, and Otero, have recognized Place as Text’s potential beyond honors, incorporating it into fields such as sociology, environmental studies, and urban planning. With its community-based, inquiry-driven approach, Place as Text embeds students in real-world contexts, encouraging critical dialogue and underscoring the pedagogy’s role in promoting inquiry, community engagement, and a holistic understanding of place.

As higher education grapples with pressing contemporary issues—sustainability, social justice, and interdisciplinary learning—Place as Text has expanded to address these challenges, drawing from frameworks like Freire’s vision of education as a pathway to social consciousness. By exploring the social and political implications embedded within spaces, students confront real-world issues such as gentrification, spatial justice, and socio-economic divides. Foucault’s concept of space as a product of power relations further enriches this approach, allowing students to examine how urban landscapes act as sites of control, resistance, and resilience. In engaging students with these complexities, Place as Text embodies both Braid’s and Kuh’s principles of diversity, equity, and civic responsibility, offering students a platform to understand and analyze power structures in tangible ways.

Environmental education within Place as Text emphasizes place-based connections to the ecological impact of human actions, drawing on the work of Orr and Gruenewald. By immersing students in both built and natural environments, Place as Text promotes sustainability and ecological awareness, resonating with Bachelard’s notion of phenomenological space, where physical experience shapes environmental consciousness. Some contributors to the volume will likely explore how Place as Text nurtures ecological ethics in students, inspiring them to advocate for sustainable practices—a priority that aligns well with Braid’s vision of engaged, responsible learning.

Furthermore, Place as Text reflects design-thinking principles, as outlined by Brown, emphasizing iterative exploration, empathy, and problem solving. Students are encouraged to observe and reflect on the social needs of communities, addressing design challenges in ways that align with Schön’s reflective practices and Sennett’s insights into urban dynamics. By empowering students to propose inclusive, community-centered designs, Place as Text promotes critical engagement with spatial justice and equity, reinforcing the value of collaborative assignments and real-world problem solving as catalysts for meaningful learning.

With advancements in digital technology, Place as Text has evolved to include virtual spaces, expanding the framework’s scope and adapting experiential learning to new contexts. Some contributors may discuss the incorporation of digital tools to extend Place as Text principles to virtual environments, drawing from theories on digital pedagogy by Selwyn and the global, virtual learning environments examined by Edwards and Usher. This shift broadens the pedagogy’s applicability, enabling students to explore global issues in a digital context through methods like virtual ethnography, mapping, and building community online. In doing so, Place as Text emphasizes and heightens the role of technology-enhanced learning as a means of fostering global and digital literacy.

We welcome submissions from educators, administrators, and scholars who want to engage with the theoretical underpinnings of Place as Text. Contributors are encouraged to critically examine the pedagogy’s transformative capacity, particularly its impact on honors and especially non-honors education, experiential learning, and interdisciplinary inquiry. Prospective authors might consider incorporating theoretical perspectives from scholars such as Braid, Kuh, Jacobs, Geertz, Kolb, Dewey, Foucault, and Derrida to move beyond anecdotal narratives. We seek contributions that consider the evolution of place-based learning in response to societal and academic challenges, exploring Place as Text’s role in fostering critical thinking, global awareness, and social responsibility.

This volume aims to offer a comprehensive reflection on the significance of Place as Text within experiential and honors education and to contribute to broader academic conversations within and beyond honors about the value of place-based learning as a pedagogical model. As an outward-facing volume, it seeks to initiate dialogue between honors educators and scholars across disciplines, advancing conversations on the role of place-based experiential learning in higher education. Reflecting on the next fifty years, we invite contributors to consider how this pedagogical model can evolve and inspire future generations of learners to approach the world as an interconnected web of experiences, places, and ideas.

1. Historical Foundations: Investigate the origins of Place as Text, tracing its development from a place-based learning tool in honors education to an adaptable model for diverse settings, including urban, rural, and digital environments.
2. Theoretical Frameworks: Engage with key theories that inform Place as Text such as Foucault’s power dynamics of space, Lefebvre’s spatial justice, and Derrida’s deconstruction, examining how various concepts intersect with experiential learning and interdisciplinary education.
3. Place as Text as a High-Impact Practice: Examine how Place as Text aligns with Kuh’s framework for High-Impact Practices, emphasizing experiential learning, diversity, and civic engagement. Consider how Place as Text promotes student engagement and learning outcomes both within honors education and in broader contexts.
4. Social Justice and Equity: Explore how Place as Text encourages students to engage with social issues like gentrification, economic disparity, and spatial justice, reflecting critical pedagogy frameworks such as Freire’s concept of education for social awareness.
5. Environmental Education and Sustainability: Analyze applications of Place as Text in fostering environmental responsibility, drawing on insights from Orr and Gruenewald on place-based learning to enhance students’ awareness of ecological ethics and sustainability.
6. Design Thinking and Community Engagement: Discuss how Place as Text aligns with design thinking and reflective practices, encouraging students to develop community-centered, empathetic approaches to spatial challenges, perhaps informed by Schön’s and Sennett’s emphasis on urban dynamics.
7. Digital and Virtual Adaptations: Examine the expansion of Place as Text into virtual spaces, exploring how digital platforms support experiential learning and enable place-based education in online and global contexts, with insights from digital pedagogy theorists such as Selwyn.
8. Comparative International Perspectives: Reflect on the adaptation of Place as Text in international settings, considering how concepts from Benevolo on the European city and cross-cultural insights can enrich place-based learning experiences outside the U.S.
9. Honors Education and Pedagogical Innovation: Consider the role of Place as Text in honors programs, focusing on its capacity to foster critical thinking, interdisciplinary inquiry, and global awareness, essential components of honors and non-honors education.
10. Future Directions and Innovations: Speculate on the future of Place as Text as a flexible pedagogical model, exploring its potential evolution to meet challenges posed by climate change, digital transformation, and the globalization of education.

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