Narrating Memory, History, and Space

Course Taught By: Dr. Esteban Gómez

Course ID: Advanced Seminar 2426

Meeting Times: Monday & Wednesday 10:00 - 11:50 am

Course Description: This course explores the interplay between the concepts of narration, space, and everyday city life through a variety of interdisciplinary lenses. The course has been slightly modified to address how cities, and city-life in particular, have been impacted by COVID-19. To address this issue, it will be important to understand not only the distinct characteristics of cities, but also how cities have been shaped by long-standing policies. We will also explore the challenges cities have encountered post COVID-19. To better understand these challenges we will take a close look at what happened to cities after the Great Recession of 2008-09. Finally, we will also draw attention to a review of the main concepts that will structure the course: narration and memory. By interrogating these concepts in relation to cities, we will explore how writers and researchers link everyday life on the social periphery to larger historical, political, and economic processes.

To better understand cities, researchers have turned to a basic human practice: narration. What stories do we tell about cities, and from what perspectives? How do we choose to tell those stories, and to whom? Students will be required to evaluate books, blogs, podcasts, and videos that focus on the social and political aspects of living in a city. Students will not only study the structure of the narrative(s), but also the performance of narration. Students will also be required to produce three separate “deliverables” that focus on a set of issues related to living in a city. To complete the project you will use a combination of library research, census data, observational / ethnographic research, and potentially interview(s) to investigate a particular neighborhood in the city of Denver, or maybe your hometown. The final products will include a proposal, outline, and final deliverables. 

Prerequisites:

No prerequisites.