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First-Year Research Seminar: Memory and the City
| Semester and Year | SP 2013 |
| Course Number | FIRST-UG737 |
| Section | 001 |
| Instructor | Joanna Scutts |
| Days | Mon,Wed |
| Time | 12:30 PM - 1:45 PM |
| Units | 4.0 |
| Level | U |
| Foundation Requirement |
Notes/Restrictions
Open to Gallatin first-year students only.
Description
How does a city ‘remember’ the past lives of its inhabitants? How do the peculiar characteristics of a city like New York—its population density, cultural diversity, and constant evolution—affect the memories of the individuals and groups who live there? This seminar explores the interplay between memory and the city through the study and analysis of literary texts, photographs, monuments, maps and movies. A wide range of theoretical readings provides us with a working critical vocabulary for investigating questions of cultural memory and memorialization. The research paper explores some aspect of the creation, ideology and reception of a commemorative site in New York City. Sites could include major memorials such as the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, Ellis Island, or the Irish Hunger Memorial; a smaller museum or commemorative site such as the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, the African Burial Grounds, the Stonewall Inn, or the statues in a city park; or an unofficial, virtual, or erased memorial. Writers and artists may include Sigmund Freud, Walter Benjamin, James Young, Jane Jacobs, E.B. White, Susan Sontag, Colson Whitehead, and Woody Allen.
Syllabus
Course Type
First-Year Program: Research Seminars (FIRST-UG)
