MAKING THE AMERICAN LANDSCAPE
Traces the history and evolution of the American cultural landscape from precolonial times to present. Explores how class, ethnic, and racial inequality have shaped the appearance of the American landscape over time, and how that landscape in turn has affected relationships between people and groups through the present day. Examines extraordinary things (civic structures (like our State Capitol), National Parks, War Memorials) and more ordinary kinds of places (mining towns, cotton plantations, sites of recreation and leisure, and suburban tract housing) to stimulate critical thinking about how these places have served people and groups unequally and disproportionately over time and across space. Considers complex meanings of American spaces and places to different people and groups, stimulating empathy and encouraging participation in a multicultural society.
Prerequisites & course information
Requisites: None Course Designation: Core GenEd - Civics & Perspectives Ethnic St - Ethnic Studies Breadth - Humanities or Social Science Level - Elementary L&S Credit - L&S Liberal Arts and Science Repeatable for Credit: No Last Taught: Spring 2026 Learning Outcomes: 1. Describe and interpret the American landscape as a richly layered historical document mediated by complex relationships between people and groups Audience: Undergraduate 2. Explain how the American cultural landscape has affected present day circumstances regarding ethnicity and race as well as racial and ethnic inequalities Audience: Undergraduate 3. Articulate ways in which historical change manifest in buildings, enclosed spaces, and other elements of the American landscape reveal racial, ethnic, class and gender dynamics between and among people and groups over time Audience: Undergraduate 4. Enlist forms of historical evidence – maps (current and historic), photographs (aerial and otherwise), historical newspapers, census records, deeds and land records – to interpret landscapes and landscape change Audience: Undergraduate 5. Explain the American landscape as a product of competing interests, which will demonstrate self-awareness and empathy toward the cultural perspectives and worldviews of others Audience: Undergraduate Learning Outcomes: 1. Describe and interpret the American landscape as a richly layered historical document mediated by complex relationships between people and groups Audience: Undergraduate 2. Explain how the American cultural landscape has affected present day circumstances regarding ethnicity and race as well as racial and ethnic inequalities Audience: Undergraduate 3. Articulate ways in which historical change manifest in buildings, enclosed spaces, and other elements of the American landscape reveal racial, ethnic, class and gender dynamics between and among people and groups over time Audience: Undergraduate 4. Enlist forms of historical evidence – maps (current and historic), photographs (aerial and otherwise), historical newspapers, census records, deeds and land records – to interpret landscapes and landscape change Audience: Undergraduate 5. Explain the American landscape as a product of competing interests, which will demonstrate self-awareness and empathy toward the cultural perspectives and worldviews of others Audience: Undergraduate
Sources
Catalogue variants
- MAKING THE AMERICAN LANDSCAPE · 3-4 credits.