HomeResearch SeminarsLearning on Location Recommended Readings Share: Section NavigationSkip section navigationIn this sectionLearning on Location Call for Applications Seminar Dates Seminar Leaders Participants Recommended Readings Research Seminar Logistics Frequently Asked Questions Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities. 2017. A Snapshot of Creative Placemaking in Higher Education. Ann Arbor, MI: Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities . https://a2ru.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Creative_Placemaking_2017-1.pdf.More InformationAbout this Report: This report outlines how universities incorporate creative placemaking into teaching, research, and partnerships. It offers a strong introduction to my learning-on-location research focus for potential collaborators. Recommended by Elisa Gargarella. Bain, Ken. 2021. “Books Behind Bars.” In In Super Courses: The Future of Teaching and Learning, 49-56. Princeton University: Princeton University Press.More InformationAbout this Book Chapter: The course, Books Behinds Bars, from Andrew Kaufman at UVA, is one of the best case of learning on location (service learning) I have ever seen. A group of Russian literature students read and discuss “crime and punishment” with inmates from the maximum correctional facility. A syllabus of his course can also be accessed here: https://andrewdkaufman.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Books-Behind-Bars.pdf. Recommended by Shawn Xiong. Ball, Eric L, and Alice Lai. 2006. “Place-Based Pedagogy for the Arts and Humanities.” Pedagogy 6 (2): 261-287. https://doi.org/10.1215/15314200-2005-003.More InformationAbout this Journal Article: My connection to Place-Based Learning is more practice than theory. This article helped give me a better sense of the history of the approach and the debates within. Recommended by Brennan Collins. Basso, Keith H. 1996. Wisdom sits in places : landscape and language among the Western Apache. Albuquerque, New Mexico: University of New Mexico Press.More InformationAbout this Book: Basso’s study of Western Apache place names helped me understand how the land itself can go to work on you. The land carries its own stories, and this book helped teach how to listen to those stories. Recommended by Charles McMartin. Black, Amanda, and Jason M Tylianakis. 2024. “Teach Indigenous Knowledge Alongside Science.” Science 383 (6683): 592-594. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adi9606.More InformationAbout this Journal Article: Even though Indigenous Knowledges are inherently place-based, but it’s proper application in contemporary science education remain controversial. This series of letters and responses highlight the challenges we face today. Recommended by Shawn Xiong. Carlisle, Liz. 2022. Healing Grounds: climate, justice, and the deep roots of regenerative farming. Washington: Islands Press.More InformationAbout this Book: Similarly, the vignettes illustrate connection to place and non-western approaches to knowing and making meaning of “scientific” information. Intersection of science, culture, ethics, justice is explored. Recommended by Meg Mobley. Frith, Jordan, and Jacob Ritcher. 2021. “Building participatory counternarratives: Pedagogical interventions through digital placemaking.” Convergence 27 (3): 696-710. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354856521991956.More InformationAbout this Journal Article: During the pandemic, we offered a course on ‘placemaking,’ helping students look at their surrounding through new lenses and critical reflection. I have unpublished case studies from the class but I think this article speaks to the goals of placemaking and what we tried to do to help students learn while in their respective locations. This article contributes to a definition of placemaking. Recommended by Susannah McGowan. García, Romeo. 2018. “Creating Presence from Absence and Sound from Silence.” Community Literacy Journal 13 (1): 7-15. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/clj.2018.0017.More InformationAbout this Journal Article: García article is an engaging and personal way to introduce students to the idea of what it means to listen to the histories and peoples who have cared for a place. Having taught in at universities where most of the students are not from the city or town that host their campus, the concept of community listening has been a generative way to frame our focus on learning from the people who have cared for that place. Recommended by Charles McMartin. Gruenewald, David A. 2003. “The Best of Both Worlds: A Critical Pedagogy of Place.” Educational Researcher 32 (4): 3-12. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X032004003.More InformationAbout this Journal Article: This was a foundational text for me, and I think my peers would benefit from the way that this bridges critical pedagogy and place-based education—two fields often discussed separately. Recommended by Tyler Hough. I see potential for place-based approaches to not only make the course content personal, but also to situate the science and the person in their larger social contexts. Recommended by Meg Mobley. Hartman, Eric, Richard Kiely, Christopher Boettcher, and Jessica Friedrichs . 2018. Community-Based Global Learning : The Theory and Practice of Ethical Engagement at Home and Abroad. Sterling, Virginia: Stylus Publishing, LLC.More InformationAbout this Book: Although this is a complete book — not a shorter article or chapter — it really does a great job of considering how international forms of community engagement can be intense learning experiences for all involved and a good portion of that is due to the unique aspects of specific places of learning. Recommended by Phillip Motley. Hatcher, Annamarie, Cheryl Bartlett, Albert Marshall, and Murdena Marshall. 2009. “Two-Eyed Seeing in the Classroom Environment: Concepts, Approaches, and Challenges.” Canadian Journal of Science Mathematics and Technology Education 9 (3): 141-153. https://doi.org/10.1080/14926150903118342.More InformationAbout this Journal Article: This article helps me to imagine teaching and learning beyond the physical classroom, considering placed based learning on the land my students and I live on in connection to the local Indigenous Knowledges. Recommended by Shawn Xiong. Holmes, Ashley J. 2024. Learning on Location: Place-Based Approaches for Diverse Learners in Higher Education. New York, NY: Routledge.More InformationAbout this Book:From the series foreword by Jessie L. Moore and Peter Felten: “Learning on Location invites readers to reconsider the significant role place can play in higher education learning. . . . where students learn matters. Critical attention to place enables students not only to connect to particular classrooms (sometimes online ones) but also to engage meaningfully with the people, economic and political systesm, histories, and ecosystems that surround them in their daily lives. . . . In this book, Ashley J. Holmes offers a definition of learning on location, explores how faculty can leverage location to foster student learning, and offers rich examples of learning on location pedagogies-in-action. Examples stem from multiple disciplines and institutions, encouraging readers to consider how they might adapt their own course pedagogies to be place conscious.” Hrach, Susan. 2024. “Significant Learning Beyond the Classroom.” Minding Bodies (blog), June 9, 2024. https://susanhrachcom.wordpress.com/2024/06/12/significant-learning-beyond-the-classroom/.More InformationAbout this Blog Post:I don’t do a great job of keeping up with blogs or podcasts, but I know Susan Hrach’s work and believe that embodied learning is crucial to place-based pedagogies. It also draws out the connection to contemplative pedagogies. Recommended by Kelsey Bitting. Jones, Jennifer. 2021. “Place-Based Learning and Critical Student Reflection at the Man from Snowy River Bush Festival: A Model for Embedding Indigenous Perspectives in Non‑Specialist Subjects.” Higher Education Research & Development 41 (6): 1916-1930. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2021.1969539.More InformationAbout this Journal Article: I appreciate the methodological structure of the research into student reflections and how students learned as a result of place-based experiences. “Participants who engaged in critical self-reflection and social ‘perspective taking’ were found to have enhanced capacity to recognise and negotiate competing epistemologies.” Recommended by Ashley Holmes. Kimmerer, Robin Wall. 2013. Braiding Sweetgrass. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Milkweed Editions.More InformationAbout this Book: The author models connection to place and non-western approaches to knowing and making meaning of “scientific” information. Intersection of science, culture, ethics, justice is explored. Recommended by Meg Mobley. Kligyte, Giedre, Alex Baumber, Mieke van der Bijl-Brouwer, Cameron Dowd, Bem Le Hunte, Marcus Newton, Dominica Roebuck, and Susanne Pratt. 2019. “‘Stepping In and Stepping Out’: Enabling Creative Third Spaces Through Transdisciplinary Partnerships.” International Journal for Students as Partners 3 (1): 5-21. https://mulpress.mcmaster.ca/ijsap/article/view/3735.More InformationAbout this Journal Article: One of the authors, Bem Le Hunte, met with us to discuss their Australian programs that are work-integrated learning at their core. Some themes that exist in these ‘third spaces’ include relationships, liminality, purpose, and creativity which can contribute to learning on location. Recommended by Susannah McGowan. Lowenstein, Ethan, Imandeep Kaur Grewal, Nigora Erkaeva, Rebecca Nielsen, and Lisa Voelker. 2018. “A Model Whose Time Has Come: Place-Based Teacher Education.” Issues in Teacher Education 27 (2): 37-58. https://www.itejournal.org/wp-content/pdfs-issues/summer-2018/06lowensteinetal.pdf.More InformationAbout this Journal Article: I appreciate the model they use in this piece and the concept of pedagogical anchors. Recommended by Ashley Holmes. Lynch, Jonathan, and Greg Mannion. 2021. “Place-responsive Pedagogies in the Anthropocene: attuning with the more-than-human.” Environmental Education Research 27 (6): 864-878. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2020.1867710.More InformationAbout this Journal Article: Broadens our understanding of place beyond human definitions/uses and connects it to societal grand challenges. Recommended by Kelsey Bitting. Mitchler, Sharon. 2023. Critical Rural Pedagogy: Connecting College Students with American Literature. Champagne, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.More InformationAbout this Book: I recommend chapter 2 because it expands rural literacy frameworks and invites educators to reflect critically on how class and geography shape student experience. Though focused on American literature, her insights apply across disciplines and offer a valuable perspective on including rural students in place-based learning. Recommended by Jeremy Ricketts. Montgomery, Jason. 2020. “Learning Places: Place-Based Learning in an Interdisciplinary Approach to Undergraduate Research.” In Interdisciplinary Team Teaching: A Collaborative Study of High-Impact Practices, edited by Reneta D. Lansiquot, 57-84. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.More InformationAbout this Book Chapter:Available at https://academicworks.cuny.edu/ny_pubs/680/ I recommend this article because it demonstrates how place-based learning, when paired with interdisciplinary teaching, can transform undergraduate research into an accessible and engaging high-impact practice. It offers practical strategies for using local environments to foster student agency, critical thinking, and meaningful connection to real-world issues. Recommended by Charissa Lee. Moore, Jessie L., and Nolan Schultheis. 2024. “Learning, Space, and Place in Higher Education (with Susan Hrach and Ashley Holmes).” Making College “Worth It” (Podcast), January 22, 2024. https://www.centerforengagedlearning.org/learning-space-and-place-in-higher-education/.More InformationAbout this Blog Post:In this episode, Jessie and Nolan visit with two members of the research seminar’s leadership team. Susan Hrach is the author of Minding Bodies: How Physical Space, Sensation, and Movement Affect Learning (West Virginia UP, 2021), which was recognized with the 2022 Silver Nautilus Book Award for Social Sciences and Education. Ashley Holmes is the author of Learning on Location: Place-Based Approaches for Diverse Learners in Higher Ed (Routledge, 2023). Recommended by Jessie Moore. Motley, Phillip, Beth Archer-Kuhn, Catharine Hondzel, Jennifer Dobbs-Oates, Michelle Eady, Janel Seeley, and Rosemary Tyrrell. 2024. “Defining immersive learning.” Teaching & Learning Inquiry 12: 1-25. https://doi.org/10.20343/teachlearninqu.12.9.More InformationAbout this Journal Article: This is an article I co-authored in 2024 on immersive learning practices in higher education. It is mostly indirectly related to learning on location; however, I believe the article definitely shares some space with learning on location work. Recommended by Phillip Motley. Noah, Trevor . 2025. “Esther Perel – One of My Favorite People .” What Now? with Trevor Noah Podcast, May 29, 2025. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss1zseYy7J8.More InformationAbout this Blog Post: This is a 2hr interview about Esther Perel’s background in which she discusses where she’s lived but also where she feels “local,” and in describing where she feels local she outlines in some ways what it means to learn from a location. Recommended by Susannah McGowan. Powers, Amy L. 2004. “An Evaluation of Four Place-Based Education Programs.” Journal of Environmental Education 35 (4): 17-32. https://doi.org/10.3200/JOEE.35.4.17-32.More InformationAbout this Journal Article: This article provides a comparative, evidence-based evaluation of four distinct place-based education (PBE) programs, offering insights into what works, why, and under what conditions. Recommended by Tyler Hough. Semken, Steven , and Carol Butler Freeman. 2008. “Sense of Place in the Practice and Assessment of Place-Based Science Teaching.” Science Education 92 (6): 1042-1057. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.20279.More InformationAbout this Journal Article: Recommended by Meg Mobley. Semken, Steven, Emily Geraghty Ward, Sadredin Moosavi, and Pauline WU Chinn. 2017. “Place-based Education in Geoscience: Theory, Research, Practice, and Assessment.” Journal of Geoscience Education 65 (4): 542-562. https://doi.org/10.5408/17-276.1.More InformationAbout this Journal Article: I recommend this article because it is a good review of place-based learning in my field, drawing upon literature that is much broader. Recommended by Kelsey Bitting. Stachowiak, Bonni. 2020. “Place-Based Learning with Amy Sprowles & Matthew Johnson.” Teaching in Higher Ed (Podcast), December 31, 2020. https://teachinginhighered.com/podcast/place-based-learning/.More InformationAbout this Blog Post:I recommend this podcast to those exploring place-based pedagogy because it offers practical examples of how embedding learning in local environments can deepen student engagement and relevance. The conversation highlights strategies for connecting academic content with community and ecological contexts, making it especially useful for educators designing experiential learning experiences. Recommended by Charissa Lee. This podcast helps me to connect place based learning with community and service learning. Recommended by Shawn Xiong. This podcast explores place-based learning at Humboldt State University, emphasizing interdisciplinary, culturally rooted education and offers insights into setting up learning communities centered on place. Recommended by Elisa Gargarella. Though focused on STEM, this episode offers a model for how place-based learning can foster belonging, retention, and equity—especially for first-year and underserved students. The ideas translate well across disciplines, showing how anchoring learning in local landscapes and cultures can transform student experience in any field. Recommended by Jeremy Ricketts. Also recommended by Michelle Corvette. Stevenson, Robert. 2008. “A critical pedagogy of place and the critical place(s) of pedagogy.” Environmental Education Research 14 (3): 353-360. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504620802190727.More InformationAbout this Journal Article: Stevenson enters an ongoing conversation about how place-based education can intersect with critical pedagogy, arguing that their tensions are not obstacles but opportunities for deeper engagement. His framework remains influential as educators continue exploring how local contexts can anchor critical, justice-oriented learning in higher education and beyond. Recommended by Jeremy Ricketts. Vander Ark, Tom, Emily Liebtag, and Nate McClennen. 2020. The Power of Place: Authentic Learning Through Place-Based Education. Alexandria, Virginia: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.More InformationAbout this Book: Base knowledge text. Recommended by Michelle Corvette. Yemini, Miri, Laura Engel, and Simon B Adi . 2025. “Place-Based Education – A Systematic Review of Literature.” Educational Review 77 (2): 640-660. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2023.2177260.More InformationAbout this Journal Article: I recommend this article to those interested in place-based pedagogy because it offers a comprehensive overview of two decades of scholarship, highlighting both its pedagogical potential and implementation challenges. It is especially valuable for understanding the theoretical foundations, global trends, and critical dimensions—such as community engagement and social justice—that shape the field. Recommended by Charissa Lee. This review article is a very helpful overview of place-based learning. Recommended by Beate Brunow.
