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URBAN STUDIES (L18)  (Dept. Info)Arts & Sciences  (Policies)SP2018
L18 URST 230Topics in Urban America: The Sensory Landscape of the American City3.0 Units
Description:From the great "sores" on the body politic described by Thomas Jefferson to the struggles over "blight" and gentrification of the modern era, the city has always served as a place that has intrigued, overwhelmed and at times repulsed Americans. This course is a history of the sensory landscape of the American city-how it looked, smelled, sounded, tasted and felt-and the deeper meanings Americans have invested within it. We will explore the laden social meaning of terms like "filth," "darkness" and "slum"-as well as their antonyms in "sunlight," "health" and "home"-and how they influenced the ways in which Americans not only perceived the city but sought to understand, master and, at times, reimagine it. Sensory perceptions of city life, we will find, were deeply connected to emerging ideas about race, class and gender. Moreover, the senses have always played a key role in working out larger questions of urbanism and urban form: What is the role of the city in American life? Is it a social problem or a place of opportunity and liberation? How have Americans responded to and sought to impose order on the ever-changing-and at times chaotic-urban landscape? Students will be introduced to a wide array of primary sources through course readings, ranging from government documents to first-hand accounts of reformers to maps, images and literature. While touching a broad array of subjects, readings will center on discourses of health, disease, and sanitary reform, in large part because of their intimate connection with evolving sensory perceptions of the city. Assignments will consist of two primary source analyses and a final paper focusing on a research question of the student's choosing, which will be formulated in consultation with the instructor over the course of the semester.
Attributes:BU: BA, HUM
Instruction Type:Classroom instruction Grade Options:CPA Fees:
Course Type:IdentSame As:L98 230Frequency:Every Third Semester / History
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