Syllabus and Course Schedule

Imagining the Metropolis: American Cities in Culture and History

Honors Social Science Seminar HON 1140 01/02
MWF 12:00-12:50
MWF 1:00-1:50

Inman 342

Dr. Peter Kuryla, instructor

Office: JAAC 2120
Hours: by appointment (I’m around most mornings so drop on by)
Phone: 460-6694

Email: peter.kuryla@belmont.edu

Course Description
In this course we'll think about the ways people imagined the American city from the dawn of
last century to the present day, especially in books, photographs, and film. We have to do some
occasional work with theory, getting a “conceptual toolbox” to think about cities in reasonably
sophisticated ways. As we do that, we'll consider how cities were and are: 1) meeting spaces for
diverse people and cultures across time; 2)places where dark, disturbing, or dystopian ideas of
society have lived; or 3)imaginaries where people think about the future or about utopias. We’ll
consider a few cities in historical context, and we'll take a close look at our own city of
Nashville, considering where it is now, and imagining what it might be in the future.

Course Texts

Articles/Excerpts (Blackboard)
Hannah Arendt, “The Public and Private Realm” from The Human Condition [1958]
Hannah Arendt, “The Crisis of Culture” from Between Past and Future [1961]
David Burnham, "The Plan of Chicago" [1907]
W.E.B. DuBois, excerpts from The Philadelphia Negro [1899]
Le Corbusier, excerpts from Towards a New Architecture [1927]

Richard Wright, excerpts from Twelve Million Black Voices [1941]

Ebenezer Howard, excerpts from Garden Cities of Tomorrow [1902]
Jacob Riis, excerpts from How the Other Half Lives [1899]
Jane Jacobs, selections from The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Vintage, 1992
[1961]
Adam Gopnik, “We Built This City” [2019]

Film
Charlie Chaplin, City Lights [1931]

Ridley Scott, Blade Runner [1982]

Spike Lee, Do the Right Thing [1989]
Jacques Tati, Playtime [1967]

Websites/Podcasts
Nashville NPR, “The Promise”

“Mapping Inequality”
“Renewing Inequality”

Format
The format for this course is primarily seminar style discussion. On some occasions, I’ll
introduce ideas or concepts, but primarily as a way to help with the reading.

Assignments
In addition to the reading and discussion portion of the course, students will write two essays
and do a creative project. Two essays, essentially a midterm and final, running between 10-20
pages, will be extended thought pieces about readings and class discussions. The major
assignment in the course is a creative project involving extensive evidence of research. The
creative project will involve exploration of some problem or feature of a city of one’s choice, its
aesthetics, its cultural life, or its planning (or lack thereof). These projects can take various
forms, from a traditional research paper (15 page minimum), short fiction, music with notation,
or something resembling documentary film or collage. Whatever the case, a substantial written
component must accompany your creative project. We’ll discuss the essays and the project in
class in some detail upon assigning them.

Students are also responsible for occasional online discussion to get things moving before our
class meetings. These are part of your engagement/attendance (see below). Note that the
discussions form 20% of your grade. These are an easy “A” if you simply do the online work,
contribute in class, and take good notes. I’ll keep track and let you all know periodically how
you’re doing, if you need better contributions, and so on. Notice in the course outline below
that you'll turn in notes to me every now and again so I can see how you're reading.

Mindfulness Exercises
Along with traditional academic work, we’ll also do what I’m calling exercises in “mindfulness.”
We’re reading Arendt partly over my concern about the collapse of the public sphere in the
modern world. We’re also dedicated to reading and thinking in this class, so this means we
have to develop habits of mind that combat the generally distracted nature of the information
age .Today, attention is the hottest commodity under what might be called “late capitalism.” I
want each of you to become “noticers” of the world in which you live, rather than mere
consumers of information and visual data, and so on. So the object is to slow down and pay
attention. In the course outline below, you’ll see periodic “mindfulness exercises” to help us
better understand the ongoing life of the community we live in.

Grade Distribution

Essay #1 35%
Essay #2 potential ten points added to final grade

Creative Project 45%

Discussion/Notes 20%
A 94-100
A- 90-93
B+ 87-89

B 84-86
B- 80-83
C+ 77-79
C 74-76

C- 70-73
D+ 67-69
D 64-66
D- 60-63

F 59 and below

POLICIES

Recording: Under no circumstances should students record class meetings electronically unless
there are special circumstances. Note-taking is part of the pedagogical design of the course, so
it’s important that you take notes in the traditional way (a notebook, etc.). On some
occasions, I’ll record course meetings. But under no circumstances should students record
course meetings or share them with others. That violates the privacy of your classmates.

Late Policy: Unless prior arrangements have been made, essays submitted after the due date will
lose points. Points will be subtracted from essays turned in late and without prior approval; the
amount of points subtracted will be decided by the instructor, and is contingent upon the specific
circumstances of each case.

Accommodations: In compliance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans
with Disabilities Act, Belmont University will provide reasonable accommodation of all medically
documented disabilities. If you have a disability and would like the university to provide
reasonable accommodations for the disability during this course, please notify the Office of the
Dean of Students located in the Beaman Student Life Center (460-6407) as soon as possible.

Plagiarism: Absolutely not tolerated. Failure to acknowledge prior ownership of ideas (printed,
electronic, or other media) or conscious representation of another’s ideas as your own is
potential grounds for failure of the course. When in doubt, ask.

A Note on Grading and Measures of Evaluation: I’ve found that, because Honors
students are accustomed to high grades, some tend to be obsessed with grades rather than
course content. This is a substantial problem, because it gets in the way of thinking and sharing
ideas. Rather than concerning oneself with learning how to think and read, a student in the
problematic scenario takes a brutally practical approach, where the only thing that matters is
getting through with the highest grade possible. It turns out though that, if you open yourself
up to learning something rather than worrying over grades, you’ll perform remarkably better
than the other way around. Start with ideas and trying to understand first. Good grades will
follow.

In any case, aesthetic questions, particularly those concerned with quality, and what it means
to choose, comprise a substantial portion of the material for this course. With this in mind, you
can question any grade that I give you, but you must be able to defend yourself effectively. I
won’t entertain poorly considered objections made in haste or in the throes of indignation. If
you object to my evaluation of your work, you must submit a reasoned argument to me, in
writing, against the grade given. Finally, based upon the effectiveness of the argument, I
reserve the right to add or subtract points from your original grade. We will appeal here, as
best as possible, to the tribunal of reason—construct your arguments carefully.

COURSE OUTLINE

The following outline is tentative and subject to change depending upon the needs of the
course. Invariably, the assignments change over a semester. I’ll update assigned reading and
due dates on Blackboard, so keep track of the syllabus there. The reading assignment is due on
the date it appears in this schedule, so it needs to be prepared by class time with a class
discussion online. Notice that I've put some space at the end of class. This is so because we may
want to slow down and take more time reading some things, or we may discover that we want
to try some different directions depending on how the course develops. The class is organic, so
you all contribute to its content too.

Each assignment (“read” or “mindfulness”) is due on the day it appears in the outline

8/24: intro, syllabus

8/26: Public, Private, and Civic Life: Theorizing the Polis with Hannah Arendt
READ: Arendt, pp.22-49 (sections 4-6, handout on Blackboard)

Mindfulness: Where do you read? Submit a handwritten note describing the space or spaces
where you read. Where do you sit/stand, etc.? What surrounds the space?

8/29: Public, Private and Civic Life: Theorizing the Polis with Hannah Arendt
READ: Arendt, pp. 50-78 (sections 7-10, handout on Blackboard)

PART ONE: Race, Industrial Capitalism and the Rise of the American City

8/31: The Social Question and the City: Jacob Riis’ “How the Other Half Lives”
READ: Riis, “How the Other Half Lives (Blackboard handout)
LISTEN: Kuryla, “Industrial Capitalism and the Rise of the American City” (Blackboard PWP)

9/2: The Social Question and the City: Garden Cities?

READ: Ebenezer Howard, excerpts from Garden Cities of Tomorrow (Blackboard under
“readings”)
Mindfulness: Belmont Flora: identify at least ten plants on the Belmont campus and draw a
map of their respective locations.

9/5: Labor Day, no class

9/7: Ideas of Beauty and the Cities: Burnham’s Plan for Chicago
READ: David Burnham’s Plan for Chicago (Blackboard under “readings”)

9/9: Ideas of Beauty and the Cities: Burnham’s Plan for Chicago

READ: David Burnham’s Plan for Chicago (Blackboard under “readings”)

9/12: Towards a Phenomenology of the City: Chaplin’s City Lights

READ: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy on “Phenomenology” (parts one and two)
WATCH: Charlie Chaplin, City Lights (available through "Link to Films")

9/14: Race, the Social Question and the City: DuBois and the Philadelphia Negro
READ: DuBois, “The Philadelphia Negro” (Blackboard, first 36 pp. of pdf, so up to Chapter XV)
LISTEN/WATCH: Kuryla, Black Americans Leading to and During the Great Migration
(Blackboard, PWP with audio)

9/16: DuBois and the Philadelphia Negro, con't; Mapping Inequality and the Problem of
Redlining
READ: DuBois, “The Philadelphia Negro” (Blackboard, finish pdf)
Turn in Notes on Blackboard

9/19: Black Metropolis and the Wages of the Migration

READ: selections from Richard Wright, "12 Million Black Voices" Chapter 3, "Death on the City
Pavements" (pp. 90-139) (Blackboard)

9/21: Black Metropolis and the Wages of the Migration, con't

READ: selections from Richard Wright, "12 Million Black Voices" Chapter 3, "Death on the City
Pavements" (pp. 90-139) (Blackboard)
READ: Mapping Inequality Website (Introduction, look at four cities)
Mindfulness: listen to an instrumental piece of music longer than ten minutes in length. Write
down your impressions afterward.

9/23: CLASS ONLINE

Listen/Watch, PK, "Housing and American Social Life at Midcentury" (Blackboard under
lectures)
Creative Project Assigned
9/26: Idealisms and Utopias: Imagining the City with Le Corbusier

READ: excerpts from Le Corbusier, Towards a New Architecture (Blackboard)

Mindfulness: Choose your least favorite building on campus and the immediate environs. Draw
it and describe what you dislike about it.

9/28: Idealisms and Utopias: Garden Cities in the 1930s

WATCH: The City (1939) (Blackboard link)

9/30: Flora and Fauna in the City: Margaret Renkl’s Nashville

Read: Margaret Renkl, selections from Late Migrations and Graceland at Last (Blackboard)

PART TWO: Midcentury Planning, Jane Jacobs and the Fight for Living Cities
10/3: Jane Jacobs’ Organic Ideas

READ: Death and Life, Chapter One (Introduction)

10/5:NO CLASS

10/7: Jane Jacobs on Sidewalks

READ: Death and Life, pp. 29-73
Creative Project Proposal Due

10/10: Proposal Workshop

Essay #1 Assigned

10/12: Jane Jacobs on Neighborhoods

READ: Death and Life, 112-140

10/14: REVISE PROPOSALS, no in-class work

10/17: FALL BREAK, no class

10/19: Jane Jacobs, 143-177

10/21: Jane Jacobs, 178-238

10/24: Jane Jacobs, 241-290

10/26: NO CLASS, HOPE SUMMIT, etc.

10/28: Jacobs, 291-317

The Origins of Urban Crisis
WATCH: The Pruitt-Igoe Myth

10/31: A Day in the Life: Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing

WATCH: Do the Right Thing (dedicated course link)

Turn in Notes on Blackboard

11/2: Nashville and City Planning CLASS ONLINE

LISTEN: “The Promise” (podcast, see Blackboard link)
Part One: January 24, 2018
Part Two: January 31, 2018
Part Three February 7, 2018

11/4: Nashville and City Planning, CLASS ONLINE

LISTEN: "The Promise" (podcast, see Blackboard)
Parts 4, 5, 6.
Essay #1 Due

11/7: The Dynamics of Mixed Uses: Small Businesses in Cities

READ: "How Hot Chicken Really Happened" (Blackboard Readings)

PART THREE: Postmodern America and the Question of the Future

11/9: Theory: Simulated Cities?
READ: Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation (excerpts, Blackboard handout)

11/11: Theory: Simulated Cities?

READ: Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation (excerpts, Blackboard handout)
11/14: Baudrillard and "C'etait Une Rendez vous"
WATCH: in-class film

11/16: The Dark Vision of Blade Runner

WATCH: Blade Runner (dedicated course link)

11/18: Jean Baudrillard’s America

READ: Baudrillard, selection on Los Angeles from "America" (1989)
11/21: Creative Projects Workshop
EXTRA CREDIT ESSAY ASSIGNED
11/23-11/25: THANKSGIVING BREAK

11/28: Baudrillard goes to New York

READ: Baudrillard on New York (excerpt from America, in Blackboard Readings)

11/30: Projects Presentations

Dom

Claire
Tricia
Shae
Halle
Mallorie

Marina

12/2: Projects Presentation

12/5: Concluding Thoughts, Discussion

PROJECTS DUE 12/15
ESSAY #2 Due Exam Day