CKCU features podcasts by undergraduate Urbanism students
October 28, 2024
Four student podcasts produced in Assistant Professor Suzanne Harris-Brandts’ “Theories of Urbanism” course last winter are featured on CKCU campus radio in collaboration with The Place of Sound podcast.
“Architecture has a tendency to bias visual outputs,” explains Dr. Harris-Brandts. “At the same time, we are now seeing an exciting trend of architects and urbanists using audio media to capture the experience of our built environment.
“To encourage creativity in assignments, students produced both visual pamphlets and podcast episodes, then shared these back with one another to forge a common resource library.”
Listen to the student podcasts here:
- Tactical Urbanism by Charbel Gangnon, Amos Stapper, and Ikemefuna Onyiuke
- Playful Urbanism by Sianna Pottinger-Gentles, Stella Park, and Aimerhodes Table
- Aquatic Urbanism Chloe Clubb, Sarah Cichon, and Jessica So
- Speculative Sci-fi Urbanism by Denise Cenina, Shela Lamug, and Yesha Patel
Students in ARCU 4300 Theories of Urbanism ranged from 2nd to 4th year of the Bachelor of Architectural Studies Urbanism stream, as well as from other units such as Geography.
Working in groups of two or three, the students created 10-to-12-minute podcast episodes that explored a selected urban theory, not discussed in their weekly classes. They also made a two-page/double-sided visual pamphlet in digital format, summarizing the key points.
“The assignment gave students the opportunity to address what they saw as important new theoretical avenues in urbanism,” says Harris-Brandts. “It also provided an opportunity to apply their diverse visual representation and spatial-analytical skills, as well as develop new communication abilities.”
She introduced the podcast assignment in 2024. To prepare, she took a podcast workshop at Carleton’s Teaching and Learning Services (TLS). Students also participated an in-class workshop led by TLS Digital Media Specialist Greg Allison.
“I place value on a variety of assigned course materials and project outputs – podcasts, videos; interactive multimedia – in addition to conventional text readings and writing,” she says.
The Place of Sound is a student-run radio show/podcast produced in Carleton University’s Communication and Media Studies Program. Airing on CKCU FM, campus radio, the show is part of an ongoing research and pedagogy project on sonic geographies led by Dr. Vincent Andrisani in the School of Journalism and Communication.
“Professor Andrisani and I saw an opportunity to connect since his work for The Place of Sound project has a heavy focus on people’s experiences of space and the built environment, which aligns well with my course content,” says Harris-Brandts.