Tracing Abu Dhabi’s Stories

Catalog description

To know a city, one must read it as a living text. This course invites visiting students to become "urban biographers," learning about and documenting Abu Dhabi through direct interaction and sensory research while tracing the tension between the city’s rapid modernization and enduring cultural heritage. Drawing on the city’s history, issues in urban studies, and literature on Abu Dhabi, students will visit the city weekly and complete prompts that challenge them to see the city beyond the tourist gaze. By merging rigorous observation with the craft of the personal essay, students will produce two short works of creative non-fiction that "interpret" the city: one focused on a single site, event or encounter in the city, and another based on an interview with an Abu Dhabian, connecting the individual story to the fabric of the city itself.