Cities in Imagination, Representation and Reality

American Cities:  Past, Present and Future 

Seventy percent of the U.S. population and 50% of the world population live in urban areas. The urbanization of the U.S. and world populations is expected to increase in coming decades, posing both challenges and opportunities for the creation of environmentally sustainable communities that promote creativity, social connection, economic opportunity and physical and mental health. This course will examine U.S. cities through multiple disciplines: history, art history, sociology, community psychology and environmental studies. The course will address such questions as: How and why did cities develop in the U.S.? Is urban poverty unique from other forms of poverty? How does urban living affect lifespan development? Are cities needed for artistic innovation? Is gentrification a good or bad thing? Can better building/neighborhood design make better people? Are cities the new sustainable future? The final section of the course will involve using what we have learned about cities to develop a plan for the revitalization of depopulating cities such as Detroit and Flint Michigan.

Professor: Sharon Kingston, Psychology
Time: 11:30 MWF
 

From Genesis to Metropolis: The Image of the City in Western Civilization

This course aims to provide students with an understanding of urban centers, and attitudes towards them and the people who live in them. Students will analyze the image of the city from a variety of perspectives (visual, literary, musical) to address why it continues to grip much of modern thought. It will consider ideal cities and utopias (Paradise, New Jerusalem), real cities (New York, London, Florence, Venice, etc.), cities of the dead, cities of evil (Babylon), the mythic origins of cities (Aeneid), cities of the future (City of Tomorrow), literary cities (City of Ladies, Invisible Cities), dystopia (Metropolis), suburbs and the garden city, among others. Students will examine the dynamic polarity between the built environment and nature, cities and sustainability, and how people shape cities and how cities shape people.

Professor: Phillip Earenfight, Art/Art History
Time: 11:30 MF
 

New York and Paris: Poets and Painters Extol the Modern City

In the 19th century, poets and painters extolled the exuberance of the modern city. Our seminar’s journey will begin in New York with the poets Edgar Allan Poe and Walt Whitman. We will cross the Atlantic, reading the poetry of Victor Hugo and Charles Baudelaire. Once in Paris we will study the French and American painters who depicted Paris, like Winslow Homer who illustrated scenes of Parisian life for Harper’s Weekly. Once the French Republic was restored, a new “aesthetic of everyday life” was coming into fashion. In 1872, Monet’s Impression, Sunrise began the impressionist movement. Americans were the first to appreciate it. Mary Cassatt, among others, left for Paris to study with Degas and Pissarro. Childe Hassam came to Paris for Harper’s Weekly, he then returned to paint New York cityscapes. He said, “The Brooklyn Bridge is worth the coliseum of Rome”. Frédéric Bartholdi’s Statue of Liberty inaugurated in 1886 remains the colossal achievement of the French and American relations in the arts. Baudelaire’s Salons will serve as the model for writing our own art criticism.

Professor: Catherine Beaudry, French/Italian
Time: 11:30 MWF