This community-engaged course explores cycling through the lenses of social and environmental justice. We will study the way bicycles—as vehicles of freedom and mobility--empowered women and people of color during the late 19th century “cycling craze,” and we will learn about policies based in racism and sexism that limited who could easily experience the liberating movement cycling offered. Understanding that history, we’ll focus on how, today, the bicycle offers hope for sustainable transportation that supports individual, community, and environmental health in ways that redress racism, and gender- and ability-based discrimination.
Working closely with community partners, including the City of Kalamazoo, ModeShift Kalamazoo, the Open Roads, and others, and in international partnership with More Than a Cyclist (UK and Australia), we will explore how communities can build cycling infrastructure using an equity lens. We will work closely with partners on and off campus on projects that will help to develop equitable, sustainable, and safe cycling infrastructure for people of all races, genders, income levels, and ages. As we do this, we will come to know our community by bike, riding together regularly.
- Teacher: Amelia Katanski