New York City

New York City is our greatest metropolitan legend.  Capital of dreams, it soars to the skies, gathers immigrants from around the globe, and governs world finance. The scale of its swagger is matched only by the misery of its mistakes.  This course sweeps through the history of the City’s five boroughs, working its way back from today’s most pressing urban issues toward their roots.  Here is your chance to get to know the epic place you chose for college.

The course is team-taught, by professors, teaching assistants, and all its students.  Lectures are held three times every two weeks, to allow for student field research time, with weekly small-group sessions, called forums, in which students present to each other on assigned field work themes. Three core two- week lecture units -- on the built environment, immigration, and finance -- are followed by shorter units on topics such as: language, literature, journalism, music, dance, theater, food, fashion, politics, transportation, public monuments, or museums.