Borders, Boundaries, Nations

3 units

Lines on the land can determine our political rights, our ethnic identities, and our inhabitation abilities. Landscapes become the records of the powers of statecraft, the instruments of territorial division, the customs of inhabitants, the contests of politics, and the symbols of society. This course examines the development of landscape as the record of the political subject against the nation state and the ways in which ordinary inhabitation of land entangles each of us with large political structures. This entanglement is productive; cultural agency can change, topple or expand nations. The course will track borders and boundaries from the Delmar Divide to the Iron Curtain to the U.S./Mexico border. Students will review interpretive practices, including cultural geography, historic preservation, political economy, critical landscape study, and artistic production. Field outings will draw out the power structures that create, sustain, erase, and alter landscapes with national identities. Student work will include response writing, visual analysis, and a final project illustrating the state power play occurring in what could look like a very ordinary landscape.