THE WHITENESS OF GREEN: A HISTORY OF RACIALIZED LANDSCAPES

Credit Hours: 3 · Graduate

By exploring a sequence of sites extending from urban parks in Rio de Janeiro to Rice University’s academic quadrangular in Houston, this course examines how green spaces have been socially constructed through laws, policies, design and institutional practices and how race and science have inflected in the politics and practices through which humankind interacts with non-human nature/the natural world. This course also explores acts of resistance and practices of space-taking and place-(remaking) by disenfranchised communities in urban and non urban settings. Reading Presentations: Graduate students will be asked to take responsibility for presenting the assigned readings for at least three different weeks; these 15 to 20-min presentations involve giving a brief background on the author, situating the assigned text in the context of the course, extrapolating a few key points and generating a few questions to initiate discussion of the material. Diachronic Map: Graduate students will be required to participate in the elaboration of the narrative that will accompany the graphic documentation (photos, architectural plans and urban schemes) Final Research Paper (Graduate Students): 20 to 25 typed, double-spaced pages Graduate/Undergraduate Equivalency: HART 462 .