localTREC
Get off of Zoom! Get outside. Immerse yourself in the LOCAL.
To immerse yourself in your surroundings.
Over the past year, many of us have experienced our worlds necessarily reduced by quarantines and physical distancing. But, to the expert wanderer, these limited confines contain multitudes: everyday objects made newly meaningful, previously disregarded spots understood as essential destinations, mundane activities transformed into potent rituals, often ignored elements of the environment reimagined as vital companions.
How your major helps you understand your world.
Learn to navigate a place and think about it from different perspectives. Draw on your own academic training to examine the place you are in, explore your relationship with that place, and understand more about those who live and work there. Consult with faculty experts to figure out how different theoretical lenses can help you make sense of what you observe and experience as you wander.
The town or neighborhood you currently inhabit.
Observe, describe, document, draw, record, film, and map the place you’re in. Capture it in words, images, sounds, and textures. Discover public spaces, parks, stores, businesses, and monuments. Contemplate the design and layout of your place. Study the people, animals, and plants. Interview the locals and hear what they love (or hate) about this place.
To a broad, diverse community of wanderers.
Whether moving physically, virtually, or imaginatively, an expert wanderer can document their local place in creative and critical ways and, in sharing the results with others, expand their own horizons by learning about the places of others. Turn your wandering into an individual project to be shared with fellow wanderers via a poster presentation, video, or reflective writing.
This localTREC fulfills the off-campus requirement for graduation. You’ll sharpen your powers of observation and attention to detail, explore new ways to apply what you know, and learn how to help others see what you see.
