REIMAGINING OF URBAN STUDIES COURSE

A student and a senior connect through cross-border research project

BY ANDREW YIN

“Oh, that’s wonderful!” This is a phrase that you might not hear often during a pandemic, but it was one I heard almost weekly in the fall of 2020, during my conversations with MaryEve, a retired American teacher in Columbus, Ohio.

I met MaryEve through INI342 (now URB342), a qualitative research course in Innis’s Urban Studies Program. Taught by Assistant Professor Aditi Mehta, the course was completely redesigned to fit the pandemic context.

“Instead of sending students out into the city to investigate public spaces as I had done in the past,” Aditi explains, “I partnered with True Davidson Acres Home for the Aged in Toronto and Village in the Ville, an elder community network in Columbus.” Through one-to-one, intergenerational connections, students were asked to develop an urban-themed research project based on their elder partner’s life experiences.

One reason I was drawn to the course was I thought it might help ease my social isolation during the pandemic. I was not alone. “Many of the elder partners were particularly vulnerable and isolated during this unprecedented time, and the course provided them with meaningful social activity,” recalls Aditi.

While I was excited to take this course, I was also nervous. As an immigrant from China, I have always felt self-conscious about my Englishspeaking skills.

What would MaryEve and I talk about? Would we connect? I was anxious. However, her warmth and excitement immediately calmed me.

In our initial exchanges, I was surprised to learn of MaryEve’s unique connection to China. In the late 70s, she and her students became pen pals with a group of students in Wuhan, China. She visited them in 1982, a time when few foreigners travelled there. I was enthralled by her stories. As I learned more about MaryEve, I discovered more commonalities, despite our age difference. The bond between us was building.

MaryEve later told me that the most memorable aspect of the course “was the fact that you and I discovered many things that we had in common.”

Our discussions often revolved around education, based on MaryEve’s experiences as a dedicated teacher. In my project, I decided to connect education, urban studies, and MaryEve’s life experiences. One day I felt especially stuck on an assignment asking us to create a map for the project. How could I creatively map schools and neighbourhoods? As MaryEve and I talked, a light bulb went on. I set to work, creating a layered series of maps on tracing paper that showed school ratings and socio-economic indicators in two Columbus neighbourhoods.

MaryEve had inspired me. And though I was barely seeing anyone due to lockdowns, I was never alone because MaryEve was my partner.

Weeks later, I presented “Educating Students, Benefitting Communities: A Tale of Two Neighbourhoods” on Zoom with MaryEve in attendance. It was a moment of pride, and it allowed her to “look at my city through your lens.”

As the semester ended, we knew our friendship would continue. We have stayed connected, kept each other updated on our vaccination progress, reflected on anti-Asian discrimination, and shared new dimensions of ourselves. Whatever we talk about, optimism is always present.

“I feel that we have become stronger, more resourceful, and more optimistic just knowing that we MADE IT [through] a whole year,” MaryEve wrote me. I, on the other hand, have reimagined my abilities and grown as a person through a course that, as Aditi aptly reflects, “demonstrated the multidimensional value of intergenerational partnerships for student and elder wellbeing, intergenerational allyship, and mutually beneficial knowledge production.”

MaryEve agrees. “Each generation exists in an evolving environment,” she says, “the fact that we were able to have this experience during a pandemic added depth and a different dimension. A valuable historical document, to be sure.”