B’More Intersession Program

Eating is more than just grabbing a meal; it’s a fundamental part of our social fabric. At every meal we have the opportunity to build social connections, explore new tastes through culinary adventures, and support the local farming economy by eating local—all while consuming good nutrition for our optimal mental and physical performance. Eating healthy food is both a fundamental need and a fundamental right in our democracy. Students will examine concepts such as food democracy and food justice while learning how organizations in Baltimore work to alleviate the challenges that poor nutrition presents to underserved members of our community.

Integrative medicine is an approach that uses the best scientific research and evidence-based practices in Holistic Therapies to enhance the outcomes of modern Western medicine, while alleviating the overwhelm and sky rocketing costs of our current medical system. Because we can implement much holistic medicine ourselves, it knows no economic, social, gender or racial bias. Students will be introduced to various holistic modalities and experience of the self-governing and self-transformation of some Baltimore’s most underserved populations.

This course will allow students the opportunity to define democracy through a public health lens. Students will engage in a week-long opportunity to learn more about the diverse and robust stories of the Baltimore community, while exploring their own social value of grassroots or community development work.

What does democracy look like in post-industrial Baltimore? How have communities organized against the intertwined forces of manufacturing decline, job loss, housing exploitation, municipal abandonment, and the rise of the carceral state? This course explores these questions in conversation with residents who have been fighting for community empowerment in Southwest Baltimore since the 1990s, neighborhoods chronicled in “The Corner” (1997) and sensationalized in “The Wire.” Together, we challenge reductive narratives about Baltimore and its residents.