Fall 2025 History BC2920 section 001

Urban Healthscapes: A Spatial History of

Urban Healthscapes

Call Number 00341
Day & Time
Location
TR 10:10am-11:25am
To be announced
Points 3
Grading Mode Standard
Approvals Required None
Instructor Gergely Baics
Type LECTURE
Course Description

This course examines the landscapes of urban public health from the medieval era to the 19th century using spatial analysis. It has two objectives. Thematically, it introduces students to the concept and study of “urban healthscapes” in Europe and the Americas before the age of modern bacteriology. Weekly lectures advance through a sequence of four related themes: (1) medieval and early modern communal, infrastructural, and regulatory spatial practices of public health; (2) urban mortality regimes, epidemics, and societal responses; (3) the relationships between urban form, spatial governance, planning, and public health; and (4) problems of environmental justice, including unequal exposure to health risks and access to health amenities. Methodologically, the course approaches these topics via the lens of historical Geographic Information Systems. In weekly labs, students acquire technical skills of GIS mapping. They learn how to work with spatial data, create GIS maps, conduct spatial analysis, and develop spatial historical arguments and narratives. Labs integrate recently released public hGIS datasets on a variety of cities—such as medieval Bologna and 19th-century New York—directly relevant to the themes covered in lectures. For course assignments, students use these datasets to conduct spatial analyses of urban healthscapes. The course is open to all undergraduates. Previous GIS knowledge is not needed.

Web Site Vergil
Department History @Barnard
Enrollment 0 students (25 max) as of 9:05PM Tuesday, April 1, 2025
Subject History
Number BC2920
Section 001
Division Barnard College
Open To Barnard College, Columbia College, Engineering:Undergraduate, Global Programs, General Studies, Professional Studies
Section key 20253HIST2920X001