HERITAGE AND THE CITY

Dialogue and debate about cultural and architectural “heritage” permeate our lives today, suggesting that the material traces of the past continue to shape the way we negotiate and make sense of the present.  This course asks students to consider how this negotiation of heritage manifests in urban contexts: How do urban residents navigate heritage spaces in their daily lives?  How are these spaces embedded in surrounding urban communities—and what sociospatial and political conflicts do they engender among community members?  How do different forms of heritage articulate with broader urban processes such as gentrification and re-development?  To tackle these questions, this course takes a global and interdisciplinary approach, drawing on sources from history, memory and museum studies, anthropology, geography, archaeology, architecture, and urban planning.  Through their engagement with this material–as well as a semester-long fieldwork project in New York City, students will become familiar with the dominant concerns of scholars and professionals working on–and with–urban heritage.