Multicultural America: (City-building, Social Movements, and Urban Change)

Course Details

Department & Course Number	URB STD 150, LEC 201
Class Number	66151
Course Type	Undergraduate (Milwaukee Campus)
Credits	3
Meets Requirements
Instructor	Jamie Harris
Course Dates	July 22 - August 17, 2024 (Third 4-week Session)

We increasingly live in an urban and multicultural world. Yet, cities and metropolitan regions are often divided by race and ethnicity. Why is that? Taking an interdisciplinary approach and drawing on several case studies, this course will look closely at how race and ethnicity have shaped, and continue to influence, patterns of segregation and economic division across the American urban landscape. Specifically, we will focus on racial justice movements, historical and contemporary explanations for residential segregation, housing insecurity and the eviction crisis, neighborhood redevelopment and gentrification pressures, and sustainability and environmental justice movements. The course will also focus on the role of immigration and ethnic enclaves and economies as well as Indigenous urban communities in transforming urban spaces in the 20th and 21st century.  Treating cities as dynamic and ever changing, we’ll look at the ways different groups have used urban space to construct distinct community identities and to foster movements for social change, as well as how gender and sexual difference have been defined and represented in urban space. This course satisfies the cultural diversity requirement and provides social science GER credits.   Course Syllabus (PDF)