Place-based US History
“Nora is kind, culturally humble, thoughtful in her planning of course content, and takes a learner stance with the students. She comes with a wealth of knowledge and facilitates learning through discovery. She cares about making this course relevant to each individual learner. I love the content and she embodies respect for marginalized groups throughout history, with the central theme of the course honoring their version of history. Highly recommend. I really like the communal feel Nora helped build among us.” (Santana R.)
“I am thrilled and overwhelmed with the depth and breadth of your offering. I look forward to revisiting the places I have discovered and continuing to explore new territory for many months and years to come. A more general goal was just to see if I could develop an appreciation for history by engaging with a different way of learning. I would say that this is a big," Yes"... All of your communications felt warm and inviting. It really felt as if you were gathering your family together for a special time of connection and storytelling and we were all part of that family.” (Kerry R.)
“It was very meaningful for me to think not only about US history, but how to think about US history. It felt important to not only be learning about Indigenous peoples in different regions I was traveling through, but also to think about how was conceptualizing and learning. How was/am I perpetuating a settler-colonial mindset in my thinking and my understanding? How can I learn about Indigenous people in a way that was not harmful nor passive, but active and intentional?
I think that the course laid out life-long history practices in a really engaging and helpful way. The design of the course made all the concepts applicable to any part of my day, and easy to integrate into my thinking/perception of what is in front of me. The practices were taught in a way that felt woven and interconnected smoothly into my life to keep learning regardless of if I was reading, walking, or talking with others.” (Hannah E.)
El Paso Community College
“I learned that there are people like me out there, maybe not exactly alike but i can compare myself to others lives. Something that will definitely stick with me in this course was not something i learned from the instruction but the instructor herself, i learned that theres someone who really understands us and wants to connect to us more than just an assignment.”
For the longest time, I saw the world and history from a small hole. In this class, I learn a lot, and that small hole of knowledge got more significant.
"One thing that will definitely stick with me forever that I learned from this course was the very first assignment we did the 'Where are you local?' assignment because I really was facing a huge racial identity crisis and that assignment genuinely helped me out a lot more than I thought it would."
"My ancestors on both sides descend from white immigrants, so previous history classes did not hide the way they were treated. Most of this course involved me learning about the history of pretty much everyone except myself, because my history was the only one I really knew well."
"History was never my strongest subject but for some reason I took interest in it this semester. I spent more time on working on school than I have ever had and I enjoyed it."