A People’s Guide to the Hudson Valley
About This Project
Welcome to “A People’s Guide to the Hudson Valley.” This online guide explores sites across time throughout the Hudson Valley. (Scroll down for a regional map.) Employing a perspective of “the people,” the guide privileges the desires, hopes, and struggles of those on the receiving end of unjust forms of power; it is also a perspective of those who work to challenge such inequities and to realize a region, as well as a larger world, that is radically inclusive and democratic, and that centers social and environmental justice. The guide’s goal is to tell a story about the making of the Hudson Valley as a region, characterized by strong ties within—as well as many divisions along axes of (among others) class, gender, race, sexuality, and space. The guide explores these ties and divisions—how they were made, challenged, and struggled over—as a way of making sense of what the Hudson Valley was and is, and what it could be.
Background
This project is inspired by and modeled after the “People’s Guide” series of the University of California Press. In 2012, the Press published A People’s Guide to Los Angeles. Since then, there have been five more “People’s Guides” published on Greater Boston; the San Francisco Bay Area; New York City; California’s Orange County; and Richmond and Central Virginia.
Who’s involved
This guide’s authors are the students of Geography 286 (“A People’s Geography of the Hudson Valley”) and Geography 360 (“Urban Renewal in the Hudson Valley”) –– both “Intensive” courses at Vassar College. The entries credit the authors, their major(s), and graduation years. The instructors serve as editors. Karly Andreassan, an Academic Computing Consultant, designed the website.
Timeframe for project
Spring 2021 saw the first offering of Geography 286 (see the syllabus here). In spring 2023, the course focused on Yonkers. In fall 2023, Geography 360 examined the impacts of urban renewal on Albany Poughkeepsie (see the syllabus here). Vassar’s Geography Program envisions future iterations of the course to continue developing the guide.
