Imagineering the American City

What will American cities look like in the future? Will they be "smart"? Will they be sustainable? Will they be equitable? This course will explore possible answers to these questions by looking back towards the nation's urban past. The city has been a polarizing space in the U.S. imagination since the nation's inception, but in the late nineteenth century it became clear that industrialization and urbanization were undeniable parts of the nation's future. The national conversation shifted away from debating if the U.S. should urbanize to how it would urbanize. This course will introduce students to the concept of "imagineering" in urban studies, or the process of engineering imagined urban landscapes into physical reality. Drawing on a wide range of historical sources, including engineering design publications, city planning maps and memos, and urban photojournalism, students will learn about why and how the nation imagineered (and re-imagineered) urban spaces, and trace how these activities have shaped urban inequality, politics, culture, and environments in the past and present. Using contemporary media, like Weird City (2019) and Elysium (2013), short stories like N.K. Jemisin's "The City Born Great," and TedTalks on the future of urban design, this course will also explore possible futures for urban America. The creative weekly assignments will ask students to step into the proverbial shoes of different city residents, writing Op-eds as a journalist, inspection reports as a city planner, and manifestos as a local activist, to discuss urban issues across time and space from different perspectives. The final research project offers students the opportunity to use their newfound knowledge to propose a solution for a contemporary urban issue with deep historical roots.