URBS 177 - Special Topics

Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 unit(s)

(Same as AMST 177 and ENGL 177) Topic for 2020/21a: Imagining the City. This six-week course surveys various approaches to thinking and writing about the city. How do our surroundings change us? What power does an individual have to reshape or reimagine the vast urban landscape? We consider a diverse array of texts (journalism, philosophy, literature, photography and video) and a range of case studies: the “city of the future” circa 1910, 1950 and 2000; underground networks of utilities and subways; the rise of car culture and the case of Los Angeles; debates around gentrification and art; globalization, style, and AirBNB; present-day graffiti artists and urban farmers reclaiming their “right to the city.” Hua Hsu.

Second six-week course.

Two 75-minute periods.

Course Format: CLS