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Sarah
Stacy Iannarone Why am I choosing the Urban Studies Ph.D. program at PSU and how does it meet my career goals? I have long searched for meaningful work that satisfies my sometimes incongruous desires for self-understanding through intellectual inquiry and reflection on the one hand and for self-efficacy through recognition of my social responsibilities and civic engagement on the other. One site where these goals merge is in the exploration of the dynamics of urban places, the conflicts, contradictions and creative potential of cities that geographer Andy Merrifield calls the “urban dialectic…in which the best and worst of human civilization—the struggle and the strife—often reside.” Through an academic career in Urban Studies, I hope to explore the grey spaces between disciplines, to exploit the cooperation of applied and theoretical inquiry, and to experience the unifying power of learning in action. The wealth of faculty and depth of social science research resources in PSU’s School of Urban Studies and Planning must motivate many students to apply to, and ultimately enroll in, its Urban Studies Ph.D. program. For me, however, the school’s commitment to assisting the development of the city and region through innovation in accordance with PSU’s well-known precept, “Let Knowledge Serve the City,” informs my interest in the program; I, too, am committed to the city of Portland as an individual, citizen activist, and scholar. I have realized this ideal most recently by conceiving and directing a community building project in the Mt. Scott-Arleta neighborhood that is transforming an underutilized traffic triangle into an ecologically-focused community gathering place celebrating local history and culture. In recognition of my longstanding dedication to communities as dynamic entities that survive and thrive only through active, intentional engagement, I was honored to receive PSU’s President’s Award for Outstanding Community Engagement in both 2004 and 2005. I am invested in studying the processes implicit in community development, looking closely at how people come to understand and identify with the places of which they are a part. With funding from the Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program under the tutelage of Professor Sy Adler, I designed an original study in which I examined the values that motivate people to engage in local placemaking efforts. As the beginning of my exploration into grassroots community building efforts, I see this study as the jumping off point for a wider investigation of the forces shaping the landscape of civic participation in the post-welfare state. Charles Heying’s work in the Urban Studies department interests me in this regard: working outward from the neighborhood level, his plans to critically apply social capital theory using both qualitative and quantitative research into local economies to reveal the “values of place” widely parallel mine. Underlying our research is a common interest in bringing to light the ideologies shaping practices and policy decisions at the local level in an urban global marketplace. In addition, by exploring the essential attributes of the values driving placemaking, my research supplements quantitative research simultaneously conducted by Professor Jan Semeza in PSU’s School of Public Health into the benefits of cultivating social capital through placemaking; we plan to present our results together at the Northwest Health Foundation conference on community-based collaborative research later this year. In a corollary vein, I am interested in the public policies that affect the manner and effectiveness of community organization and development, namely the historical processes and contemporary discourse surrounding access to digital information and communications technologies (ICT), focusing on the community development potential of the medium and what Langdon Winner has termed the “Myth of Cyberlibertarian-ism.” Professor Gerald Sussman’s work on the political economy of ICT and media has been central to my understanding of the structural forces shaping the patterns and systems of communication within communities. His forthcoming work on community radio in Italy, based on the critical method he has employed throughout much of his career at PSU, reflects a recent intellectual shift from communications to sociological theory which heightens my desire to collaborate with him on research I’ve only just begun into the political economy of new media and citizen activism. Additionally, I would like to help Dr. Sussman realize his goal of someday establishing a media institute—not in the communications or public policy departments as at many universities—but in cooperation with the School of Urban Studies and Planning in recognition of Portland’s accomplishments in the realm of community media. For
the last two years I have worked closely with faculty and students to
integrate community-based learning components into the curriculum as a
teaching assistant in Portland State’s University Studies department.
This has exposed me to the complexity of community partnerships in the
learning process and inspired me to pursue a degree that enables me to
apply my philosophy of transformative pedagogy in a university setting.
By espousing a multicultural, critical, student-centered approach to education,
I hope to empower future generations to become the primary agents in their
own learning and actors for social progress. I am eager to build my skills
as a teacher and civic participant in a department invested in community
learning partnerships and I look forward to the advice and challenges
of its experienced faculty as I work toward my goal of securing a position
as tenured faculty at an urban university, conducting research into the
ways that people, collectively and individually, arrive at an understanding
of their places. |