For most, people-watching is a way to enjoy a lazy afternoon, but for some UNM students, it’s a subject to be studied.
The archeology of walking is a course on the study of people-watching.
Dr. Troy Lovata, the founder and professor of the course, said it’s meant to get students out of the classroom and on the field.
“It’s really looking at all the ways people walk, use walking and approach walking,” he said. “We’re using walking as a research tool.”
Instead of using textbooks to study walking, the students gain information from outside sources, such as pilgrimages to Chimayo or studying trails along the Bosque.
English major Vittoria Totaro said a major portion of the class has been going outside and walking, while talking about ways to walk and understanding why people walk.
“It’s really been great to get outside,” she said.
The course offers more than people-watching and hiking, however.
Lovata said it is also about how people work and adapt to their surroundings. The class studies subjects like art, in order to understand why people walk.
Students are working on a project that blends art with walking and chalked poetry at the Duck Pond, Lovata said.
“The reasoning behind it was that the students were trying to disrupt everyday people walking around campus and direct them in a certain way,” he said. “They were trying to engage people and make them think why or how they were walking.”
Totaro said the inspiration behind the poetry trail was to see what people noticed while they were walking.
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“We were aiming to interrupt people’s walking, while giving them something nice and pretty to read,” she said.
Student Rosemary Steinberg, who is in the class, said it was enriching even though it doesn’t apply to her major.
“I just like to walk,” she said. “It’s given me an understanding about people and life more. It would be great for a psych major.”
It’s true that the course features more time outdoors than in a classroom setting, but Totaro said students still spend time doing reading assignments.
“We have to earn the right to walk,” she said.
