HONOR 3818 - City as Text

In the ancient Greek world, the followers of Aristotle were called "peripatetics" for walking with their teacher under the peripatos (covered walkway) of the Lyceum just outside of Athens. City as Text is based on the same notion, that walking around a particular place leads to a deep type of experiential learning. This model is based on the work of David A. Kolb and Gestalt psychologist Kurt Lewin and involves four stages: concrete experience, observation and reflection, formation of abstract concepts and generalization, and testing implication of concepts in new situations. The text for this course will be a global city (e.g. London, Paris, Seoul, or New York City). Students will study a city through a series of mapping exercises, readings, reflections and writing assignments and immerse ourselves in the place in the effort to understand its urban form and history, the social realities it exposes, and the cultural life it embodies.