Flight Paths: Mapping Our Changing Neighborhoods

Find Flight Paths stories here.

This five- to seven-year, digital humanities initiative begun in 2015 centers on exploring the history and unfolding of white and green (or economic) flight as well as black empowerment in Gary and Northwest Indiana. Eventually, it will be a multimedia initiative to help participants, both regionally and nationally, engage and analyze factors contributing to de-urbanization and the fracturing of neighborhoods, communities, and regions in post-industrial America through the specific example of Gary, Indiana. Stories and texts will also help participants consider the opportunities residents found and continue to find in the face of de-urbanization. We hope to launch cross-county conversations about what it means to be good neighbors by looking honestly at our past. Flight Path team members consist of faculty from Valparaiso University, Indiana University Northwest, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, and Pacific Lutheran University.

The Invisible Project: Stories of Home and Homelessness 

Find Invisible Project stories here.

The Invisible Project is a 2015-2016 collaboration between the Welcome Project and Porter County Coalition for Affordable Housing, Housing Opportunities, Gabriel’s Horn, Dayspring Women’s Center, Porter County Museum, and Prof. Yeohyun Ahn’s 598 Graphic Design course in the graduate Digital Media program at Valparaiso University. The Invisible Project seeks to educate and raise awareness about the realities of homelessness in Porter County, Indiana. Homelessness does not always look the way we imagine, and the homeless are important and valuable members of our community.
Cyanotype print by Robert Lee, a graduate student in Prof. Ahn’s Graphic Design course at Valparaiso University.