Philosophy of Place

3 Credits · Level: Graduate

This seminar will explore the metaphysics, epistemology, and phenomenology of place, territory, and home. We will examine questions such as: What does it mean to know a place? What is a territory, and how do we make and mark territorial boundaries? How are selves, minds, and bodies constituted by and essentially located in place? How does the built environment shape our identity, memory, knowledge, and action, and how do architecture, city planning, squatting, occupying, and other spatial interventions contribute to this shaping? How do different kinds of bodies use and experience space differently? How do places become sites of power dynamics through social processes such as colonization and gentrification? What is the epistemological significance of specific sorts of places, such as museums, archives, clinics, and laboratories? How do maps convey information, shape reasoning, and impact our understanding of place? We will explore these questions via readings from phenomenology, philosophy of science, disability studies, feminist and queer theory, geographic theory, and architectural theory.