Service-Learning at the Northwestern University Settlement, 1930-31, and the Legacy of Jane Addams

Service-Learning at the Northwestern University Settlement, 1930-31, and the Legacy of Jane Addams

Peitho Volume 21 Issue 1 Fall/Winter 2018

Author(s): Liz Rohan

Abstract: This article reinforces and extends claims of other scholars who historicize service-learning pedagogy in the academy with the work of Jane Addams. Featuring archival data from two students who worked at the Northwestern University Settlement (NWS) for credit with a 1930-31 sociology course, it introduces one trajectory of Addams’ influence beyond Hull House at the NWS when run by Harriet Vittum who was considered a second Jane Addams by Chicagoans. This study furthers claims by scholars of service-learning who argue for the relevance of emotional work by featuring the role of emotions and importance of autobiographical writing for Addams as a young woman as she prepared herself for social work and also for the Northwestern students fulfilling their coursework at the settlement. 

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