Students Study Effects of Rapid Development in Orange, NJ

This semester’s ANTH 414/URHS 402 (Workshop in Engaged Urbanism) is drawing on methods and theory drawn from anthropology and interdisciplinary urban studies to understand the effects of rapid development near the Orange, NJ train station on social, cultural, and physical aspects of the local community. The city of Orange a community that has experienced decades of displacement, disinvestment, and destruction.

In this engaged course, students are working in partnership with the University of Orange and Professor Julian Brash to create and shape a collaborative research project. Students will gain valuable hands-on skills in urban analysis, will tap into local nonprofit, business, and government for employment opportunities, and use the skills and insight they have learned to wrestle with crucial urban issues like public health, inequality and infrastructure, transit-oriented development, public health and gentrification.

The University of Orange is a free school of restoration urbanism that has an extensive history of allowing residents of Orange, a community that has experienced decades of displacement, disinvestment, and destruction, a vehicle to reclaim their city’s past and shape its future. On September 20, the class took a visit to Orange, where they were given a tour of the site they will study this semester by Molly Rose Kaufman, from the University of Orange.