Culture, Politics and the Metropolitan Built Environment

This interdisciplinary readings seminar will provide graduate students with an introduction to recent scholarly work on 20th century and contemporary cities and suburbs. Readings are drawn from cultural, political, social, and intellectual history, American Studies, political science, sociology, and ethnography. They will investigate the interconnections between urban and suburban development and the role of ideology, class, gender, race, and globalization in shaping planning, architecture, culture, policy, politics, and social movements. This class is open to students in American Studies, History, Sociology, Political Science, Anthropology, and other disciplines who find themselves interested in multi-disciplinary approaches to the study of cities and suburbs.