How to Reach Me
Phone: 612-330-1226
Fax: 612-330-1649
E-Mail: christil@augsburg.edu
Office: Memorial, 444
Campus Box: 105
Courses I Teach
Human Community and the Modern Metropolis (SOC 111)
Introduction to Human Society (SOC 121)
Office Space (SOC 222)
Protest and Social Change: The Sociology of Social Movements (SOC 240)
Sustainable Cities in North America (SOC 295, study abroad) Photo Album
Living in Jurassic Park: The Sociology of Disaster (SOC 300)
Research Methods (SOC 363)
Suite Crimes: Organizational Deviance (SOC 377, with Prof. Diane Pike)
Internships (SOC 199 & 399)
City Seminar: Experiential Education (GST 209)
Legacies of Chicago: Ideas and Action in Place (HON 490, with President Pribbenow)
Fate of the Earth 101: Consumption of Food, Fuel, and Media in Contemporary Culture (most recently with Professors Adamo, Harkness, and Jones.)
Associate Professor, Sabo Senior Fellow
“Individuals with their exhortations, their preachings and scoldings, their inner aspirations and sentiments have disappeared, but their habits endure, because these habits incorporate objective conditions in themselves. So will it be with our activities. We may desire abolition of war, industrial justice, greater equality of opportunity for all. But no amount of preaching good will or the golden rule or cultivation of sentiments of love and equity will accomplish the results. There must be change in objective arrangements and institutions. We must work on the environment not merely on the hearts of men. To think otherwise is to suppose that flowers can be raised in a desert or motor cars run in a jungle. Both things can happen and without a miracle. But only by first changing the jungle and desert.” John Dewey, pp. 19-20, Human Nature and Conduct (1922); emphasis in original.
Lars Christiansen joined the Department of Sociology and the Metro-Urban Studies Program at Augsburg in 2001. Lars’ teaching and scholarship focuses on urban sustainability, transportation systems, education, work and organizations, the philosophical tradition of American Pragmatism, social movements, and research methods.
In 2008, Lars was named recipient of Augsburg College’s Distinguished Contributions to Teaching and Learning – Award for Teaching.
In 2009, Lars and Professor Nancy Fischer received a Canadian Studies Faculty Enrichment Grant from the Government of Canada for the continued development of their “Sustainable Cities in North America” course.
INNOVATIONS IN TEACHING -- HIGHLIGHTING THREE COURSES:
“Fate Of The Earth 101: Consumption of Food, Fuel and Media in Contemporary Culture.”
In Fall 2009 and Fall 2010, Lars and several other faculty colleagues from English, History, Political Science, and Religion, along with several support staff, offered an exciting first-year learning community called “Fate of the Earth 101.” Together we utilize our different disciplinary perspectives and a wide array of creative teaching and learning activities to inquire about the consequences of living in a consumerist society. This interdisciplinary experience continues again in Spring 2012. If you are interested in being part of this experience, contact Lars or go here: http://www.augsburg.edu/integratedterm/.
“Sustainable Cities in North America”
In summer of 2008 and 2010, Lars and Professor Nancy Fischer taught a new study abroad course called “Sustainable Cities in North America.” This course brought students to Portland, Oregon for one week, and Vancouver, British Columbia for two weeks, with a couple of days in Victoria to meet with a member of the Provincial Government. We explored and analyzed these cities, as well as the Twin Cities, on bicycles, on foot, and using transit. We met with scholars, policy makers, and community organizers to better understand how these cities are accomplishing progressive planning practices and addressing challenges. This course received financial assistance from the Government of Canada. For a description of this course, read “Auggies Traverse the Concrete Jungle” here: http://www.augsburg.edu/metrourban/. Or, read “Studying Sustainability” here: http://www.augsburg.edu/now/2008_2009/april/articles/sustainable_cities/index.html.
“Legacies of Chicago: Ideas and Action in Place”
In Spring of 2010 and 2011, and in subsequent alternating spring semesters (2013, 2015, etc.) Lars and Augsburg President Paul Pribbenow are teaching “Legacies of Chicago” as the theme for the Honors Senior Seminar.
The course theme is on the intersection of network theory and place, focusing on networks of activity or communities of thinkers-doers. Every great place produces great ideas and actions, sometimes to a level of influence that they become gifts (or curses) to the city or even the larger culture, gifts (or curses) from one generation to another. With the help of colleagues in Art, Business, English, and Theater, this course explores major contributions that Chicago has given to U.S. culture and history, including: Deweyan Pragmatism and Progressive Education; Addams’s Social Ethics and neighborhood building; the Chicago School of Sociology and Urban Ecology; the formation of commodities markets; Chicago architecture (ie., the work of Burnham & Root, Sullivan, Richardson, Cleveland); the literature and film of Chicago; the Alinsky model of social change; and Chicago-style improvisational theater. We finish the course focusing on events in 1990s to the present, from the Chicago Heat Wave of 1995 to Obama’s community organizing in the 2000s. During the semester the class spends a long-weekend in Chicago.
MAJOR RESEARCH PROJECTS:
Lars is completing a major research project on alternative liberal arts colleges that resulted in four works: The first is titled, “Non-Grading Colleges: Their Significance and Ability to Resist Institutional Isomorphism.” This paper analyzes alternative post-secondary liberal-arts schools as a way to address questions about the meaning, purpose of practices of education. Through extensive interviews with faculty, students, alumni and administrators, and archival document analysis, this paper is a case study comparison of four colleges and universities: Alverno College, The Evergreen State College, Hampshire College, and New College of Florida. These schools use alternatives to traditional grades such as narrative evaluations and portfolios, and are characterized by other significant curricular innovations.
The second work from this project is titled, “Beyond “Grade Inflation”: The Profundity of Grades and Why We Still Use Them.” The third is, “The Rise and Compromise of Innovation at the University of California, Santa Cruz.” And the fourth is “A Social History of Alternative Colleges in the U.S.”
With Professor Nancy Fischer, Lars just published “Teaching Urban Sociology and Urban Sustainability on Two Feet, Two Wheels, and in Three Cities: Our Experience Teaching “Sustainable Cities in North America.” Teaching Sociology 38 (4): 301-313.
With Andrea Dvorak, and Professors Nancy Fischer and Joe Underhill, Lars has published “A Necessary Partnership: Study Abroad and Sustainability in Higher Education.” Forthcoming Spring 2011 in Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad.
Lars has begun the initial stages of a major research project on the social psychology of various modes of transportation. He will be comparing identity construction, emotions, conceptual & rhetorical frameworks, and relational dynamics of people as bicyclists, motorists, and walkers.
Lars has published in the American Sociological Review, International Review of Social History, The Journal of Academic Librarianship, Teaching Sociology, and Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad.
Professional Affiliations
Lars is a member of the American Sociological Association and the Midwest Sociological Society.
Service at Augsburg
Lars is a Senior Fellow for the Sabo Center for Citizenship and Learning (www.augsburg.edu/sabo). Lars currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs (HECUA) (www.hecua.org).
Lars is representing Augsburg on the Franklin Avenue Pedestrian Safety committee (affiliated with Seward Redesign). Lars is a past member of the Augsburg Faculty Senate (2005-2007), Augsburg’s Composting Committee, the Social Science Collaborative, and the Assessment Committee. He was also faculty advisor for Augsburg’s Sociology Club (2002-2006).
Service and Interests beyond Academia
Lars is on the Board of Directors of Nice Ride Minnesota, the non-profit organization that is responsible for creating and implementing the Twin Cities’ bike share program (www.niceride.org). Lars is also on the Board of Directors of St. Paul Smart Trips (www.smart-trips.org), an organization advocating for the viability of multiple modes of transportation in St. Paul. As resident of Saint Paul, Lars is a member of the Hamline-Midway Coalition (St. Paul District Council 11) and serves on its Transportation Committee. In that capacity he is chairing the Central Corridor Friendly Streets initiative. He is also a member of the Bicycle Association of Minnesota, the League of American Bicyclists, and Adventure Cycling. Lars enjoys bicycle touring and mountain centuries, and commutes by bicycle in the Twin Cities year-round. As a former musician and now merely a discerning fan, he can’t seem to get enough of The Bad Plus, Self-Evident, John Zorn & Electric Masada, Frank Zappa, Tortoise, Traindodge, and (the) Melvins.
