The task of explaining how a city became what it is has traditionally fallen to historians, or perhaps novelists. But a Bowdoin student is spending her summer preparing to create a different sort of account of the Portland waterfront.

Jenny Ibsen ’18 has a Phocas Family Fellowship from Bowdoin to start her capstone project for her self-designed major of urban studies.

In addition to writing a thesis paper, she will be creating an interactive website that combines journalism, sociology, art, and history to tell the story of a transforming Portland waterfront.