Academic Spaces- The GO Bus as Contained Knowledge

Happy New Year! The excitement of the day after Labour Day is upon us. Students have flocked to once scarcely inhabited campuses to orient themselves to a new space, new programs, and new collaborators. I am starting a new academic year in a new place as well, having secured a full-time position at a new college. It is a position that sees me working on all the things that I love and care about deeply, but from outside the classroom. It requires reflection and adoption of a new concept of academic space and my position within it. It is an exciting time and one filled with happiness and gratitude.

                 I am sure I will have more to say on this particular topic in subsequent posts; this is just a small dipping of the toe into long abandoned waters. I have not written on this blog for more than a year and half. That will require explanation as well I suppose…in time. But for now, I want to focus and open the topic of discussion to academic spaces, how we create them, what they mean, and how they can appear in many places- sometimes places we least expect.

                I’ve been thinking of the bus I take to campus each day (I have been commuting for almost 2 months now) and how it is its own type of contained academic space. A moving space filled with knowledge. In the bus are students, faculty, and staff from different disciplines, from different academic backgrounds, all on their way to create their own communities on campus. But the bus itself is its own microcosm of that larger space and community. There is a certain feel to an academic environment which I have spoken about main times on this blog. One can think of books, conversations, a certain architecture, green open and inviting squares to congregate, or many other things (academic spaces do not need to be monolithic and the fact that they often characterized as such says something about the state of education and desire to create uniformity when diversity creates a better learning environment).  None of these academic markers are readily present in the bus- sure there are books and conversations but the space is mobile in time and place. The fact that I would find some sort of academic space here or academic feeling here, again suggests the individualized response to academic spaces. I’m sure most would just see the bus as a bus, but the bus becomes part of a larger system that transports one to and from academic spaces (more readily may I add when the “school year” has started, as witnessed by my express route this morning).What does this say about access? 

                The bigger question that seems to rest at the heart of this is how do we conceptualize the spaces that we deem academic, or the spaces (in my case) that give one comfort? How can we create these spaces? What needs to present? What has to be absent?

                Can we take advantage of these brief moments of time and space (my commute on the express bus is 30 minutes) to create a new community, one that helps shape and support an even larger one? There are more questions than answers here and that’s the point. Community starts with questions, space is a questionable concept. I want to open up a space for dialogue about shifting academic spaces, and how we can and must remain passionate, creative, and grounded when our spaces shift and change.

                I hope you all have a wonderful school year! Keep collaborating, keep thinking, keep exploring, and keep reading…I’ll have more up soon. It’s good to be back!