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Genevieve Carpio's Pedagogical Portfolio: Teaching, Digital Humanities, and Diversity

Teaching Publication: Building People's Histories

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Teaching Philosophy 30 plain 2013-04-30T23:57:36-07:00
My work renders historical questions, perspectives, and stories socially meaningful for present populations. The opportunity to engage students in this process is an integral part of my work. My primary objective as a teacher is to provide students with a critical lens towards American studies so that they may better locate themselves as agents of social change. My approach emphasizes experiential learning, the community partnerships, and project-based work.

Experiential learning engages students by underscoring the connections between theory and practice. Because of my own professionalization within archival and preservation based organizations, these activities center on providing students with opportunities for primary historical analysis, including:
- Conducting on-site architectural analysis of “the Mexican Village” in Los Angeles
- Analyzing the content of exhibits at the Natural History Museum
- Discussing historical methods with archivists at the Seaver Center for Western History
In any of these activities, I ask students to consider the various ways groups have worked to create historical narratives that shape the ways we understand racial difference. Recognizing the production of history as a process with material consequences challenges passive learning approaches to education and can spark debate regarding the stakes involved when making sense of the past.

I find that opportunities to move the classroom beyond campus resonate particularly strongly with underrepresented students, for whom the communities surrounding urban universities more closely represent their own ethnic or class identifications. For instance, in my coordination of the Building People’s History project, a semester long community partnership intended to draw public attention to a politically active archive in south Los Angeles, students from diverse backgrounds became active participants in discussion, stayed after class, and expressed interest in becoming majors. The visible presence of leaders sharing a similar background helped them connect with class materials, take an active role in the discussion, and envision a place for themselves in historical practice.

I draw upon my experience in public history and digital media to design project based assignments in my classroom. I often ask students to work together in small groups. Doing so helps them hone a sense of self-awareness and accountability as social agents whose ideas and actions affect others. In future courses, I will integrate my training through the Institute for Multimedia Literacy at USC. Digital media offers an exciting opportunity to examine the ways culture drives technology, methods for collaboration in a networked world, and the implications of emergent technologies for historians.

In closing, as a scholar with a commitment to the public humanities, I seek to make ethnic studies meaningful to students by applying its lessons to the analysis of contemporary landscapes. It is my goal to realize visions of liberatory praxis in the local times and places of people’s lives, both within and beyond the classroom.
Diversity Statement
I grew up in Pomona, a city referred to by Mike Davis as the “The Suburban Nightmare” for its downward trajectory from a garden city to a crabgrass slum. The combination of family financial struggles, a disinterested high school guidance counselor, and a demanding work-study schedule as an on-call maintenance worker marks my academic career as unlikely. However, it is my personal trajectory as a bicultural (Mexican and Puerto Rican) working-class woman raised in the suburban nightmare that draws me to promote diversity in higher education.

I credit overcoming the barriers of economic and social disadvantage to mentorship by faculty of color and pipeline programs, first as an undergraduate in the McNair Program, later as a National Science Foundation EDGE Fellow, and currently as a Ford Dissertation Fellow. Realizing the important role played by teachers from underrepresented groups to my own success, as an undergraduate I took on leadership roles as a Latino Student Affairs Mentor, Board Member of the student organization Empowered Latinos in Action, and a resident advisor at the Oldenborg Center for Modern Languages and International Relations. As a graduate student, I have actively sought academic service opportunities that allow me to institutionalize a commitment to diversity within higher education.
For instance, as a member of the Graduate Admissions Committee and Faculty Staffing Committee within the urban planning program at UCLA, I was responsible for reviewing and making recommendations on student selection and faculty promotion. At USC, I have individually mentored and held workshops on professionalization targeting underrepresented students. As part of my commitment to diversity, I seek to render historical questions, perspectives, and stories socially meaningful for present populations. For instance, my collaborative article “Building People’s Histories” in the March issue of the Journal of American History offers a frame to talk about the many ways historical knowledge has been produced, distributed, and used in California social movements. In my teaching, I strive to create opportunities where student learning and community engagement align to produce a learning environment that promotes critique of contemporary social inequities.

Through my training as a historian in ethnic studies, participation and service in pipeline programs, and commitment to pedagogical principles promoting diversity both inside and outside the classroom, I aspire towards a model of higher education characterized by full and equitable inclusion.
Teaching Portfolio 8 plain 2013-04-29T20:19:40-07:00
My work seeks to render historical questions, perspectives, and stories socially meaningful for present populations. The opportunity to engage students in this process is an integral part of my work. Towards this end, my primary objective as a teacher is to provide students with a critical lens towards American studies so that they may better locate themselves as agents of social change. The toolkit I use to do so emphasizes experiential learning, diversity, and community partnerships.
Experiential learning offers a powerful tool for engaging students with the practice of comparative ethnic studies. Because of my own professionalization within archival and preservation based organizations, these activities have centered on providing students with opportunities for primary historical analysis, including:
- Conducting on-site architectural analysis of “the Mexican Village” in Los Angeles
- Discussing historical methods with archivists at the Seaver Center for Western History
- Analyzing the content of exhibits at the Natural History Museum
Rather than finding a “correct” answer, I ask students to consider the various ways groups have worked to create historical narratives that shape the ways we understand racial difference. Recognizing the production of history as a process with material consequences challenges passive-learning approaches to education and can spark debate regarding the stakes involved when making sense of the past.
I find that opportunities to move the classroom beyond campus resonate particularly strongly with underrepresented students, for whom the communities surrounding urban universities more closely represents their own ethnic or class identifications. For instance, in my coordination of the Building People’s History project, a semester long community partnership intended to draw public attention to a politically-active archive in south Los Angeles, students from diverse backgrounds became active participants in discussion, stayed after class, and expressed interest in becoming majors. The visible presence of leaders sharing a similar background helped them connect with class materials, take an active role in the discussion, and envision a place for themselves in the production of history.
Experiential learning and community partnerships contribute to an active-learning environment within the classroom. They provide opportunities for student reflection within writing assignments, common experiences to draw upon during small-group work, and material references for lectures. Based on iterations in my discussion section at USC, I plan for student-led discussion to be a signature part of each class. While lecture and assignments also hold a central role in my classroom, I believe that fostering students’ responsibility for themselves and their classmates helps them hone a sense of self-awareness and accountability as social agents whose ideas and actions affect others. I am also interested in integrating digital media to the classroom in sustainable ways, evident by my current training through the Institute for Multimedia Literacy at USC.

In closing, as a scholar with a commitment to the public humanities, I seek to make ethnic studies meaningful to students by applying its lessons to the analysis of contemporary landscapes. It is my goal to realize visions of liberatory praxis in the local times and places of people’s lives, both within and beyond the classroom.