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Course Offerings (CAS Bulletin)

CORE INTRODUCTORY COURSES

Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Metropolitan Studies

V18.0601 Formerly MAP V55.0631, equivalent to Introduction to Metropolitan Studies, V99.0101. Brenner, Molotch. Given every semester. 4 points.

A broad and interdisciplinary introduction to the field of urban studies. Surveying the major approaches deployed to investigate the urban experience in the social space of the modern city. Explores the historical geography of capitalist urbanization with attention to North American and European cities, to colonial and postcolonial cities, and to the global contexts of urban development. Major topics include urban politics and governance; suburban and regional development; urban social movements; urban planning; the gendering of urban space and racial segregation in urban space.

Cities in a Global Context

V18.0602 Formerly V99.0103. Rademacher, Zaloom. Given every semester. 4 points.

What is a Global City? How does a global perspective shape our understanding of urban spaces, and the politics of creating social and spatial order in cities? Draws on ethnographic examples from a range of cultural and geographic contexts to explore twenty-first century urbanization. Through examples that range from Shanghai to Sao Paulo, we trace how issues like equity, migration, violence, ecology, and citizenship can inform an understanding of modern cities.

ELECTIVE COURSES

(Areas 1, 2, 3)

AREA 1: Social Welfare and Public Policy: Economics, Poverty, Health, Education, Families, Law

Law and Urban Problems

V18.0610 Formerly V99.0232. Lasdon. Given every fall. 4 points.

Interdisciplinary introduction to the law as it interacts with society. Focuses on problems in areas such as housing, zoning, welfare, and consumer affairs, emphasizing the underlying social, economic, and political causes of the problems and the responses made by lawmakers and courts. Readings are drawn from the law and social science. No specific knowledge of law is required.

Urban Schools in Crisis: Policy Issues and Perspectives

V18.0611 Formerly V99.0238. Cohen. Given every fall. 4 points.

Examines the changing political purposes of public education. The pressures placed on school systems and how they adapt to the demands of political clients and constituents are studied in the context of political and fiscal pressures exerted by competing priorities at different levels of government. Also explores the intergovernmental context of urban schools, with emphasis on repeated criticisms of the adequacy of the American public school system to train future generations to think and perform well in the workplace.

Work and Wealth in the City: The Economics of Urban Growth

V18.0612 Formerly V99.0243. Zaloom. Given every other year. 4 points.

The financing of complex American cities raises related issues about the changing character of work in the city and the organization of wealth and city finances in contemporary urban America. Examines a diverse set of questions about the forms of capital needed to maintain a city, the economics of regional development, the role of taxes in supporting services and urban development, the job structure of a metropolitan area, and the types of incentives necessary to maintain a diverse labor force.

Community Empowerment

V18.0613 Formerly V99.0244. Brettschneider. Given every spring. 4 points.

Empowerment is defined as those processes, mechanisms, strategies, and tactics through which people, as well as organizations and communities, gain mastery over their lives. It is personal as well as institutional and organizational. Addresses these issues in a wide variety of community settings. Designed to be challenging and rewarding to those students interested in helping people work together to improve their lives.

Violence in America

V18.0750 Formerly V99.0220. Identical to V57.0616. 4 points.

See description under History (57).

Urban Economics

V18.0751 Formerly V99.0310. Identical to V31.0227. 4 points.

See description under Economics (31).

Government of New York City

V18.0752 Formerly V99.0370. Identical to V53.0364. 4 points.

See description under Politics (53).

Urban Government and Politics

V18.0753 Formerly V99.0371. Identical to V53.0360. 4 points.

See description under Politics (53).

Community Psychology

V18.0754 Formerly V99.0380. Identical to V89.0074. 4 points.

See description under Psychology (89).

American Dilemmas: Race, Inequality, and the Unfulfilled Promise of Education

V18.0755 Formerly V99.0041, V11.0041, and V18.0501. Identical to E27.0041. 4 points.

Historically, education has been the most accessible and effective means for groups to achieve social mobility in American society. However, access to public education has never been equal for all segments of society, and there continues to be considerable variability in the quality of education provided to students. As a result of both explicit and subtle discrimination, racialized minority groups have at various times been denied access to education or been relegated to inferior schools or classrooms. Yet education has also been the arena where the greatest advances in social justice and racial equality have been achieved. Understanding the contradictions created by the hope and unfulfilled promise of American education is a central theme of this course.

Urban Settlements: Law, Housing, and Conflict in New York City

V62.0249 4 points.

See description under Institute for Law and Society (62).

Urban Violence in America

V28.0105 4 points.

See description under History (28).

Contested Cities: Globalization and the Politics of Urban Governance

V18.0756 Formerly V99.0334. Identical to V93.0936. 4 points.

See description under Sociology (93).

AREA 2: Urban Culture and Identity: Culture of the City and the People of the City

Culture of the City

V18.0620 Formerly V99.0247. Given every spring. 4 points.

Urban culture is a complex, fantastic part of daily life, encompassing everything from vaudeville, the public library, opera, and dance to the local bar, social club, and graffiti. By considering cities to be sources of cultural invention, the course explores, through literature, history, social science, and student experience, the evolution of high and popular culture, both modernist and postmodernist. Emphasis is on how cultures create bonds between specific interest groups and on how culture becomes the arena for acting out or resolving group conflict.

Gender in the Urban Environment

V18.0621 Formerly V99.0270. Given every fall. 4 points.

Explores the effects of urban spatial and economic changes on women’s lives. This course addresses issues related to the labor force of the new service-based city; ethnic groups, classes, races, and religious affiliations; the problems of the new female immigrants; women’s social service needs. Theoretical and historical analysis of sexism. Implications for health care, welfare, day care, crime, family relations, sexual harassment, and wage discrimination.

The Latinized City

V18.0252 Formerly V99.0305 and V13.0305. 4 points.

See description under American Studies.

Re-Imagining Community: Race, Nation, and the Politics of Belonging

V18.0362 Formerly V15.0200. 4 points.

See description under Asian/Pacific/American Studies.

Race, Class, and Metropolitan Transformation

V18.0367 Formerly V99.0345 and V15.0601. 4 points.

See description under Asian/Pacific/American Studies.

Race, Immigration, and Cities and New York City

V18.0311 Formerly V99.0347, V93.0347, and V15.0322. 4 points.

See description under Asian/Pacific/American Studies.

Multiethnic New York

V18.0363 Formerly V99.0349 and V15.0310. 4 points.

See description under Asian/Pacific/American Studies.

Chinatown and the American Imagination

V18.0370 Formerly V99.0353 and V15.0607. 4 points.

See description under Asian/Pacific/American Studies.

Writing New York

V18.0757 Formerly V99.0180. Identical to V41.0180. 4 points.

See description under English (41).

The Irish and New York

V18.0758 Formerly V99.0325. Identical to V57.0180. 4 points.

See description under History (57).

Urban Anthropology

V18.0759 Formerly V99.0329. Identical to V14.0322. 4 points.

See description under Anthropology (14).

Cities, Communities, and Urban Life

V18.0760 Formerly V99.0350. Identical to V93.0460. 4 points.

See description under Sociology (93).

Art of the City

V18.0761 Formerly V99.0030. Identical to V93.0030, E20.1030. 4 points.

A broad introduction to the political and spatial dynamics of artistic production in 20th- and 21st-century cities. Artists are viewed as makers of culture, but also of urban character and geography—essential components in the elaborate divisions of labor that create the global metropolis. Readings and lectures draw from a range of historical periods, geographic locations, and artistic genres.

AREA 3: The Material City: The Built Environment, Planning, and Development

City Planning: Social and Economic Aspects

V18.0630 Formerly V99.0280. Given every spring. Haff. 4 points.

Introduction to the theories and practice of city planning and critical evaluation of the field. Examines the role of city planning in influencing urban development and confronting chronic urban social problems. This course gives special attention to the impact of planning on the neighborhood as opposed to the citywide level, to social science as opposed to physical urban planning, and to the political context of planning as opposed to the notion of planners as “neutral” technical experts.

Urban Environmentalism

V18.0631 Formerly V99.0285. Given every other year. MacBride. 4 points.

This course examines some of the many environmental issues facing people living in cities and towns around the world. It focuses on the practical, everyday realities of these issues, why they exist, and what can and should be done to change them. It uses these particularities to consider larger questions about the relationship between human society and the natural world in the urban context. Employing the analytic tools of sociology, the course grapples with ideas from economics, political science, philosophy, geography, and natural science to develop a theoretical framework for understanding environmental issues facing cities today.

Shaping the Urban Environment

V18.0762 Formerly V99.0320. Identical to V43.0021. 4 points.