GEOG 303 - Advanced Debates in Urban Studies

Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)

(Same as URBS 303) Topic for 2018/19a: Global Ghetto: Ethnic Geographies of Divided Cities. Global cities have long been divided by their ethnic geographies– spatial divisions of class, race, national origin, religion, gender, and other sources of status and identity. This multidisciplinary seminar explores how and why urban space has become inscribed by such ethnic differences, both historically and in our contemporary globalized world. We consider ideals of ethnic integration and realities of segregation; migratory processes and congregation by choice; alternative discourses of assimilation, multiculturalism, and transnationalism; and the formal and informal mechanisms that maintain – and those that undermine – urban inequality in what Mike Davis calls our “planet of slums.” After tracing origins of the Jewish ghetto in medieval Europe, we turn to how the ghetto has been applied successively to European immigrant, African-American, and other ethnic enclaves of U.S. cities. Controversies concerning gentrification and displacement in New York City’s Harlem, Chinatown, and East Village, and in San Francisco’s Mission District, provide contemporary examples for discussion. To provide global cross-cultural comparison, we also examine the informal favela communities of Brazil and the urban slums of India. In addition to the social sciences, we also consider literary and artistic perspectives on urban murals, graffiti, and other cultural movements. Field trips examine such issues in New York City and Poughkeepsie. Brian Godfrey and Tyrone Simpson.

One 3-hour period.