Scribner Seminar Program
Course Description
There's No Place Like Home: An Exploration of Place
Instructor(s): Hope Casto, Education Studies
Why are certain places so familiar and comforting to us? How can certain landscapes,
landmarks, sights, sounds and smells evoke powerful memories of place? Using our own
experiences of geographic, virtual, and constructed places, we will come to an interdisciplinary
perspective on place. In particular, we will learn about place through the lenses
of sociology, anthropology, geography, ecology, history, and education. Students will
use their transition from home to Skidmore as a way to examine the development of
one’s own sense of place. We will see the impact of place on the creative process
through studying expressions of place in art and literature, for example through a
visit to the Tang Museum on Skidmore’s campus and by reading Charlotte’s Web. We will
conclude the course by discussing our relationships with places in connection to the
local worlds we create and the globalized world we occupy.
Course Offered