Teaching fellow creates class about the spread of outdoor adventure

I am deeply grateful to the Oregon Humanities Center and the opportunity provided by the 2018–19 Coleman-Guitteau Teaching Fellowship to develop a new class that explores the geography of outdoor adventure sports, “Hike, Bike, Skate, Surf, Ski: The Geography of Outdoor Adventure.” Students in the course used archival materials, current academic work, and social media about these sports to examine the transformation of environments, economies, and cultures wrought by the emergence of consumer culture, the increasing availability of leisure time, and the development of modern technologies. 

Growing transportation networks allowed access to formerly remote areas from densely populated areas. In European and US urban spaces in the early 1900s—before cars dominated the roads —bikes allowed unprecedented personal mobility. This helped to change women’s fashion, as well as gender roles, as existing clothing styles were unsuited for the demands of cycling. More recently, skateboarding has again transformed the use of urban spaces, and skate culture has become a global phenomenon as urbanization has spread across the globe. Surfing provides another interesting example of globalization. It’s initial spread was sparked by efforts to develop tourism and the military expansion of the US into the Pacific, and technologies advanced during World War II provided surfers access to colder ocean waters with wetsuits, and more types of waves with foam surfboards.

Newspapers, magazines, and later film were crucial to the spread of these activities. More recently internet content and social media have dramatically increased the profile of outdoor adventure activities. A key part of the course involved students identifying archival materials from the early 1900s (such as newspaper and magazine articles) as well as more recent cultural materials (such as YouTube videos). The support of the fellowship allowed me to work with Joanna Merson and the UO InfoGraphics Lab to build an online collection and map of these archival materials, tagged with descriptions and summaries provided by the students. This collection was used for class assignments and will be available for future iterations of the course to build upon.

Nicholas Kohler, Geography; 2018–19 OHC Coleman-Guitteau Professor