Professor Susan Philip and student Omar Alonson will be designing an interdisciplinary course that will examine the economic, socio-cultural, and environmental evolution – and future – of the Brooklyn waterfront. Using the existing course framework of “Learning Places: Understanding the City,” the project team will research the the impacts of leisure, manufacturing, shipping, immigration, housing, and transportation along the waterfront. The course will track the transformation of Brooklyn’s maritime economy to a more service-oriented economy that is balances the forces of gentrification, preservation, and climate change.

The course will plan place-based learning experiences using the Brooklyn waterfront as an integral part of the course.  Taking the pandemic into account, the course will examine and utilize virtual tools available to expand opportunities for place-based learning. Throughout the course, the Brooklyn waterfront will be used as a living lab for the many issues that communities currently face. Leaning on multidisciplinary research methods, students will create virtual walking tours of the Brooklyn waterfront, and they will be made available to the public.