Ruins: Abandoned Remembered

Catalog description

Every place has ruins: falling down houses, overgrown parks, crumbling pasts. Rust belt cities like Binghamton become defined by empty factories and warehouses that reflect US deindustrialization and local economic hardship. Ruins remind of community history and individual joys or hardships. Ruins also often have toxic legacies that poison land and water. They serve as anchors for community identity and yet present challenges for local decision makers: Demolish these sites? Repurpose them? This class examines ruins culturally and environmentally in the classroom as well as through interviews with Broome County residents about local industrial ruins. Prerequisites: ENVI 101 and ENVI 201. Offered spring only.