Baltimore
AS.001.219 · Baltimore as Classroom
Progress in the City
In this course we reflect on what it means to think about progress in Baltimore — a city where the history of economic growth, exclusion, and ongoing change is never far from the surface.
Click a marker to learn about each site. Sites marked Class visit are part of planned course field trips and are not available for the Baltimore Video assignment. All other sites are available for groups to choose.
Sites
Note: This list of locations and their descriptions is preliminary and subject to change, including in response to feedback from local communities and organizations. Sites labeled "Class visit" are reserved for course field trips and are not available for the Baltimore Video assignment.
Class visits — not available for video assignment
Inner Harbor. Baltimore's industrial revolution — canning, garment manufacture, printing. The BMI documents how ordinary workers built the modern economy.
Mount Vernon. One of the great encyclopedic art museums in the United States, built on a private collection donated to the city. Art, patronage, and the question of who gets to define cultural progress.
Baltimore area (TBC). A factory producing manufactured homes — industrial production, housing affordability, and what it means to build progress at scale for ordinary people.
Available for the Baltimore Video assignment
Fells Point. Abolition, Black entrepreneurship, and the history of labor rights. What progress has looked like for Black Americans in Baltimore — and how far it has and hasn't come.
East Baltimore. Medical science as an engine of progress — and the complicated history of how the campus was built, who it displaced, and who it serves.
East Baltimore. A biotech knowledge cluster built in one of Baltimore's most disadvantaged neighborhoods. Urban renewal, the knowledge economy, and the question of who gains from a city's reinvention.
Dundalk / Seagirt Marine Terminal. Global trade and logistics — the material infrastructure of progress. A story of deindustrialization, automation, and what happens to workers when the economy moves on.
Central Branch, Cathedral Street. One of America's first free public library systems. The politics of who gets access to knowledge — and how that has changed.
West Baltimore. One of America's oldest continuously operating public markets. Urban markets, entrepreneurship, food systems, and neighborhood change over nearly 250 years.
Mount Royal Avenue. Creative economy and design innovation. How do arts institutions shape what counts as progress? Groups choosing this site may want to pair it with the Baltimore Museum of Art (Site 8).
North Charles Street, adjacent to the JHU Homewood campus. A civic art institution built on patronage and endowment. How do cities invest in cultural progress — and who defines what that means? Consider pairing with MICA (Site 7) for a richer comparison.
From industrial waterfront to tourist destination — and now in flux again. A case study in urban renewal, deindustrialization, and the question of who a city is rebuilt for.
South Baltimore. One of the largest private urban development projects in American history. What does 21st-century urban progress look like — and who decides?
The historic 1911 Penn Station — recently renovated — anchors Baltimore's designated Arts & Entertainment district on North Charles Street. A case study in transit infrastructure as economic backbone and arts-led revitalization: who benefits, and who gets displaced?
Including Emergent BioSolutions. Pharmaceutical and biotech manufacturing, vaccine production, and public health infrastructure. What does it mean for a city to anchor a life-sciences industry?
Choosing your site
For the Baltimore Progress Video assignment, your group (of two or three) will choose one of the available sites from the list above. No two groups may select the same site. Sites labeled "Class visit" are reserved for course field trips and are not available for the video assignment. The goal is not to produce a tourist video — it is to use the site as a lens for thinking rigorously about progress.
The best videos will find something surprising: a tension, a contradiction, an untold story, or an unexpected connection to the ideas we discuss in class. The site is a prompt for thinking, not a conclusion.
Groups and sites are confirmed in the first week of class. The video is due in Week 4 and screened in Week 5. The full assignment description is on the Assignments page.