Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Course Outlines

Fall 2017 - HIST 872 G100

The City in History (5)

Class Number: 5448

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Sep 5 – Dec 4, 2017: Mon, 6:30–9:20 p.m.
    Vancouver

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Examines the way cities have grown and developed since the Industrial Revolution in western and colonial contexts. Focuses on the social and cultural life of cities, theories of urbanism, and the political and economic dynamics that shape modern cities.

COURSE DETAILS:

Cities capture our imagination in many ways.  They are the theatres of human drama, settings in which identities are made, communities built, and conflicts waged.  Historical processes have a distinct shape when they occur in cities, and this course will provide the opportunity to reflect on a variety of themes through the lens of the urban environments in which they play out.  With cities from around the world and in various historical periods as our starting point, we will analyse social and cultural interactions, political tensions and economic impulses, as well as migratory patterns and power dynamics of gender, class and race that make urban environments both extraordinarily vibrant and deeply contested.  Recognising that local environments are closely integrated to global processes, we will pay particular attention to the transnational movements and forces at play in the formation of cities around the world.

David Morton is a historian of southern Africa, with a focus on urban Mozambique. His research revolves around informal settlement, urban planning, and the experience of decolonization. He is currently preparing a manuscript on the history of housing in Maputo, largely based on oral histories of house construction in the city’s informal neighbourhoods. Nicolas Kenny is a social and cultural historian of modern cities in North American and Europe.  He is particularly interested in the sensorial and emotional dimensions of people’s relationships to urban spaces.  We look forward to this course as an opportunity to foster discussion and exchange between graduate students from both SFU and UBC.  Whether your research interests are specifically urban or connect in other ways to the many themes the course will explore, we invite you to be a part of the conversation! 

  Please note that class will start at 6:30 pm (one hour later than indicated in SIS).

Grading

  • Seminar participation/discussion leadership 25%
  • Primary source engagement 25%
  • Research Paper 50%

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

Jeremy Brown, City Versus Countryside in Mao's China: Negotiating the Divide (Cambridge University Press, 2012) 

Zeynep Çelik, Urban Forms and Colonial Confrontations: Algiers Under French Rule (University of California Press,1997)

Richard Dennis, Cities in Modernity, Representations and Productions of Metropolitan Space, 1840-1930 (Cambridge University Press, 2008)

Jacob Dlamini, Native Nostalgia (Johannesburg: Jacaranda Media, 2009)

Lisa Goff, Shantytown USA: Forgotten Landscapes of the Working Poor (Harvard University Press, 2016)

Harold Platt, Building the Urban Environment: Visions of the Organic City in the United States, Europe, and Latin America (Temple University Press, 2015)

Coll Thrush, Indigenous London: Native Travelers at the Heart of Empire (Yale University Press, 2016)

Graduate Studies Notes:

Important dates and deadlines for graduate students are found here: http://www.sfu.ca/dean-gradstudies/current/important_dates/guidelines.html. The deadline to drop a course with a 100% refund is the end of week 2. The deadline to drop with no notation on your transcript is the end of week 3.

Registrar Notes:

SFU’s Academic Integrity web site http://students.sfu.ca/academicintegrity.html is filled with information on what is meant by academic dishonesty, where you can find resources to help with your studies and the consequences of cheating.  Check out the site for more information and videos that help explain the issues in plain English.

Each student is responsible for his or her conduct as it affects the University community.  Academic dishonesty, in whatever form, is ultimately destructive of the values of the University. Furthermore, it is unfair and discouraging to the majority of students who pursue their studies honestly. Scholarly integrity is required of all members of the University. http://www.sfu.ca/policies/gazette/student/s10-01.html

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS