Course Description

How are cities the setting for the conditions and crises of modern life?

This course introduces you to urban inquiry by engaging key issues, debates, and disciplinary approaches associated with studying the city.

The instructor frames this material and coordinates guest lectures from four different urban studies faculty, each of whom presents scholarship illustrating urban inquiry from their distinct fields. This semester, those fields are political economy, postcolonial theory, and visual studies.

Learning objectives

1. To explore and conceptualize the city, its social relations, and historical contexts.
2. To grapple with the cultural debates and political tensions associated with cities' growth, decline, infrastructure, and public services.
3. To evaluate different disciplines' approaches to urban inquiry and develop a multidisciplinary approach to urban studies.