Capstone: Civic Geographies

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

This course explores the possibilities of “civic geographies” and provides a platform for the pursuit of semester-long individual or collaborative projects defined by students (diverse outputs/formats are welcome). The course meets weekly to discuss assigned materials/readings and to workshop project ideas and development. We will examine creative research methods and a range of projects and activities that link the theme to student interests and inquiries. In this particular capstone, we will explore the future of collective life through the framework of “civic geographies” in relation to major challenges of our times, including pandemics, racism, the politics of public space, militarization, and so forth. We will explore various versions of civics and the connective and associational dimensions of civics, including: the sensibility of engaging with places, buildings, and wider infrastructures of collective life, the problems and promise of civility, making publics in a “post-truth” world, challenging conventions of knowledge production and the power relations of intervention, and public geographies and research methods designed for socially transformative public life. Each week we’ll focus on the politics of a public space/infrastructure at various scales, such as masks, monuments, protests, university campus, cemeteries, public transit, alleys, social media campaigns, public data, municipal budgets, the “internet of things,” lines & waiting rooms, and so forth. Whether we are on campus for face-to-face instruction or virtual, this course will form working groups (potentially based on project theme, method, or type of proposed output) to support the design, development, and peer review of individual and group projects as a capstone to your CULP major. The course is best suited for seniors and juniors with a project idea at the intersection of culture, politics, and power in some way.