By Russell Guerrero ’83
Trinity’s urban studies program is going through a renewal. In just four year’s time, urban studies has gone from having no majors to now having about 20 students pursuing a degree in the program. One of the chief architects of this revitalization is Christine Drennon, a geographer who is an assistant professor in the sociology and anthropology department.
It was about five years ago when Drennon, then an assistant professor of geography at George Mason University, came across an advertisement in an academic journal for a faculty position at Trinity University. What intrigued Drennon was the fact that Trinity was looking for a geographer even though it had no geography department. The position, she would learn, was to help restart Trinity’s dormant urban studies major.
Drennon came to Trinity and is now the linchpin in the urban studies program, teaching several courses, including Introduction to Human Geography, Geographic Information Systems, and Urban Education.
She also teaches an entry level course called Urbanization, where students get to know San Antonio first-hand by using city buses. Each student has to ride a bus route from the center of downtown to the edge of the city and back again. “For the rest of the semester, that is their study area,” she said, explaining, “this is our data. They can go out and do their research out in the field – not in the library.”
After helping to successfully restart the urban studies program, Drennon sees herself moving into a new phase of her career. “My first couple of years were very much involved in maintenance. Getting settled, getting urban studies going again, getting some new classes off the ground, advising – all of that day to day routine,” she said. “In the last year, I’ve just made what I think is a huge transition and really engaging in the whole liberal arts experience a lot more.”
“I would like to see myself providing a safe environment in which to give these young adults places to articulate and test out their ideas,” she said. She also wants to give her students an intense appreciation for where they come from, both historically and geographically, and help them to really engage in the community once they leave Trinity. “That’s what I want to be able to do,” she said. “And that’s where I want to go.”