By Cailin McKenna
Dr. Mark Naison, a professor in African and African American studies, worked with students to develop a course about the cultural history of the Bronx. Casey Chun/The Fordham Ram
In the midst of Spring course registration, several Fordham students already have their eyes set on a course set to debut in Fall 2016.
In the Fall, the university will offer a course about the cultural history and diversity of the Bronx. The course, The Bronx: Immigration, Race and Culture, will be offered by the African and African American Studies department.
“As a Jesuit university that preaches cura personalis, and a predominately white one in a neighborhood of color, I found it ridiculous that we do not have a single course on the Bronx, our community that we, more often than not, act as disrespectful, invasive, loud gentrifiers,” said Madelyn Murphy, FCRH ’17, a student who was instrumental in the creation and development of the course.
Following several racial bias incidents on campus over the past few years, Fordham students have chosen to combat social and racial injustice through education. “In light of all the recent hate crimes on campus this semester, this course is the first step [in] helping Fordham students know and appreciate their community and people who are different from them,” said Danielle Rowe, FCRH ’16 and co-president of ASILI: The Black Alliance.
Rowe also wanted to find a way to emphasize the uniqueness of the Bronx and its rich cultural history. “I think it’s essential that students at this university know about the rich and culturally diverse community…they will call home for [four] years,” she said. “There are so many things to do here besides going to the zoo, and the people and history here [are] so amazing, it’d be almost sinful for students to not learn about it.”
Murphy and Rowe approached Dr. Mark Naison, a professor of African and African American studies, about the creation of a course focused on the Bronx’s history and identity. “I wanted to see a course in the curriculum where there could be homage paid to this amazing community so often we don’t take the time to explore and discover the greatness, diversity, history and magic of this place,” Murphy said.
Naison echoed the students’ sentiments, expressing a desire to create in creating a course about the rich history of the Bronx and the cultural figures that have used the borough as an inspirational landscape. “The incentive to create it came from several students I have taught or who work as research assistants for the Bronx African American History Project,” he said. “[These students] convinced me that Fordham needed such a course immediately in the light of racial incidents that had taken place on campus.”
Murphy, a social justice leader at the Dorothy Day Center, discussed the desire for a class on the Bronx and worked with other students to develop the topics they would like to learn about. “We then took those ideas, compiled a syllabus, and a course was born,” she said.
This course focuses on the role of immigration and migration in shaping Bronx communities from the 1930s to the present. During this period, the Bronx underwent a demographic shift as the borough received a large migration of African Americans, West Indians and Puerto Ricans who moved into predominantly Jewish, Irish and Italian neighborhoods.
Through the use of novels by Bronx-based writers, and pieces composed by Bronx musicians, the course will provide a counter-narrative to the misconceptions about the role of race in increasing crime rates, racial conflict and neighborhood deterioration. According to the course description, it will utilize “new research to show how the mixture of cultures in Bronx communities inspired unmatched musical creativity.”
The course’s main focus is to eliminate the negative misconceptions of the Bronx as a place of racial conflict and violence. “The Bronx has its issues as a poor urban area, but it also was the birth place of hip-hop and is rich with a various blend of cultures and stories,” said Murphy.
The Bronx African American History Project, to which Naison and his students have contributed, is already publicizing the role of the Bronx in music and literature throughout the last century. “During the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, a few South Bronx neighborhoods produced more varieties of popular music than any place in the United States, with the possible exception of Treme in New Orleans,” said Naison.
The course will also take advantage of its ability to use the Bronx as a classroom. Many community leaders and educators in the Bronx who helped Naison design of the course will also be guest lecturers throughout the semester. Students will go on walking tours of Bronx neighborhoods and attend events at local schools and cultural centers.
While the course is still pending approval as a Pluralism and Eloquentia Perfecta 3 course, according to the Rose Hill Dean’s office, Naison hopes that the course can become a part of the core curriculum as well as an integral part of New Student Orientation so students can learn about the culture and communities that compose the identity of the Bronx.
“I would love to see a course on the Bronx as part of the core curriculum on the Rose Hill cam-pus,” said Naison. “The Bronx should be treated as a rich cultural resource for our students, not a place to be looked down on or feared because its residents come from different racial or eco-nomic backgrounds than the majority of Fordham students.”
