Local subject matter experts or trainers from the community come to class to share their knowledge and experience in a subject, or to train students on a specific methodology or community-based research practice.
Examples:
- AMST-375 / LLAS-375 / SOCI-375 / SPAN-375 Amherst Latinx Lives - In this course, taught by Prof. Leah Schmalzbauer and Prof. Paul Schroeder Rodriguez, students read and discuss different genres of scholarship that focus on the Latinx experience—empirical research, fiction, memoirs, and films—before proceeding to a series of workshops facilitated by the Pioneer Valley Women’s History Collaborative on how to conduct oral history interviews. Students then apply this theoretical and practical knowledge to an exploration of the experiences of Latinx students, alumni, faculty, and staff in our community.
- FYSE-104 Exile - This course, taught by Prof. Sara Brenneis, attempts to understand the exile experience through the work of artists, writers and thinkers from Spain and Latin America who were forced from their homelands. To that end, students engage with guest speakers with personal or professional connections to the topic of exile.
- SPAN-349 Latinx and Puerto Rican Diasporic Cultures in Holyoke - This course, taught by Prof. Sony Coranez Bolton, focuses on Holyoke, MA as a case study of Latinx Studies and Puerto Rican Studies. Students work with local Latinx artists, librarians, archivists, educators, and students to better engage as informed researchers and community participants within a framework of Latinx Studies.