As Associate Lecturer in the Haub School, Maggie Bourque teaches courses, advises students, coordinates programmatic and curricular design and assessment, creates field courses, and supports students and faculty in innovative interdisciplinary teaching and learning. Her professional and academic work is grounded in interdisciplinary education and place studies, blending cultural geography, philosophy, place-based pedagogy, and environmental studies. Before joining UW, she held positions with L.A. Theatre Works, Friends of Ballona Wetlands, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, and Teton Science Schools, among others. Maggie takes a creative, interdisciplinary, and collaborative approach to understanding complex relationships among people and place.

Honors College Clay Fellow: Featured Course

Experience of Place

Have you ever wondered what makes a place special? This course will explore the theory, practice, and experience of place by engaging with a range of experiences, fields of study, personal reflection, and big picture thinking. We’ll explore ideas coming from environmental studies, anthropology, literature, ecology, architecture, philosophy, cultural studies, art, indigenous studies, and more as we answer big questions: What does it mean to experience a place? How do we read a landscape? How do places inform our humanity and how does our humanity shape places?

In May 2022, we’ll begin with a week-long field experience based in Laramie, and then continue for 3 weeks online (in a mix of individual, small-group, and full-class interaction), making the most of in-person and flexible online experiences. The course will end with sharing your individualized final project.