Inventing Spaces: Theories of Spaces as Cultural Creations

Catalog description

This course will trace the cultural production of spaces from tourist landscapes, to urban architecture, to the making of maps, to the plantation. It will consider the theorization of space broadly, working with theorists traditionally affiliated with the field (Henri Lefebvre, Yi-Fu Tuan) and theorists who think with spaces but are associated with other disciplines (Krista Thompson, Karin Amimoto Ingersoll). Photographs, films, television, and works of art will be used to analyze how spaces are represented, and how representations and imaginings of spaces relate to their built construction. In studying the influence of visual culture in (re)making spaces, it can be observed that spaces are not neutral but are instead culturally determined and are often imbued with violences. With this notion in constant consideration, we will critically examine how we exist within, move between, remember, and reinforce spaces.