Teaching Bioregionalism in a Digital Age

Abstract

Ken Cooper and Elizabeth Argentieri discuss their collaborative project about the Genesee region of Western New York, Open Valley, which invites students not just to think and act locally, but, less obviously, to gather in one location otherwise unconnected types of knowledge: literary, economic, ecological, and historical. Engaging students in archival projects that stretch the possibilities of the academic term, OpenValley invites them to connect with institutions beyond the college campus by collaboratively analyzing commercial documents, building a digital map of nineteenth-century food infrastructure, and editing as-yet unpublished diaries from a local farming family. Combining in real life (IRL) experiences for students in the form of community-engaged service learning with digital humanities pedagogy, students bring local materials to new and wider audiences.