The City and its People

GLOBAL URBAN HUMANITIES INTERDISCIPLINARY COLLOQUIUM

Photograph

Thomas Bayrle, Wiener Tapete, 1980

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fall 2018 (1 Unit)
Rhetoric 198-3 / ARCH 198-2 (Class #: 20127)
Rhetoric 244A / ARCH 298-2 (Class #: 17450)

Instructor: Laura Belik
Instructor of record: Susan Moffat

Tuesdays, 12-1:30PM
Location: Wurster 170

Sicinius: What is the city but the people?

Citizens: True, the people are the city.

Shakespeare, William. Coriolanus. Act 3 Scene 1.

What is the city but the people? Taking inspiration from William Shakespeare’s play “Coriolanus”, this interdisciplinary colloquium engages questions about the humans who inhabit urban spaces. Guest speakers from a variety of disciplines around UC Berkeley’s campus will present their research on urban life and urban form, providing a forum for lively discussion. Presenters will include faculty and several graduate students from departments including African American Studies, Architecture, Art History, City and Regional Planning, English, History, Music, Sociology, Spanish & Portuguese, and Theater, Dance & Performance Studies.

The​ ​colloquium​ ​is​ ​part​ ​of​ ​the​ ​Global​ ​Urban​ ​Humanities​ ​Initiative,​ ​a​ ​joint​ ​project​ ​of​ ​the​ ​Arts​ ​& Humanities​ ​Division​ ​and​ ​the​ ​College​ ​of​ ​Environmental​ ​Design.​ ​Our​ ​aim​ ​with​ ​this​ ​speaker​ ​series​ ​is​ ​to provide​ ​a​ ​gathering​ ​place​ ​where​ ​people​ ​from​ ​different​ ​disciplines​ ​can​ ​learn​ ​about​ ​each​ ​other’s​ ​work on​ ​global​ ​cities both historical and contemporary. The course provides an excellent introduction to the Undergraduate Certificate and Graduate Certificate in Global Urban Humanities. Drop-in visitors are welcome!

SPEAKER SCHEDULE

August 28
Introduction + "Wireless Commons and Counterpublics: New Digital Infrastructures in Cuba"
Laura Belik, PhD Student, Architecture
Tom McEnaney, Assistant Professor, Comparative Literature and Spanish & Portuguese

September 4
"New Orleans: Historical Memory and Urban Design"
Anna Livia Brand, Assistant Professor, Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning
Bryan Wagner, Associate Professor, English
This presentation is also the subject of the upcoming GUH Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Studio course for Spring 2019.

September 11
"Choreotopias: Assaulted Desires in Asaltodiario's Street Choreographies in Mexico City, 1985-1994"
Juan Aldape Munoz, PhD Candidate, Performance Studies

September 18
"Phonography in Transit: Naples and New York"
Delia Casadei, Assistant Professor, Music
Gavin Williams, Music Research Fellow, Kings College

September 25
"Apartheid Remains"
Sharad Chari, Associate Professor, Geography

October 2
"Lineages of the Global City"
Shiben Banerji, Assistant Professor of Art History, Theory and Criticism, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

October 9
"Infrastructure Imaginaries: Informal Urbanism, Creativity, and Ecology in Lagos, Nigeria"
Charisma Acey, Assistant Professor, City & Regional Planning
Ivy Mills, Lecturer, History of Art
This presentation is also the subject of the upcoming GUH Interdisciplinary Graduate Studio course for Spring 2019.

October 16
"Impossible Exiles: Palestinians in Arab Cities"
Ahmad Diab, Assistant Professor, Near Eastern Studies

October 23
"'My Bad Attitude Toward the Pastoral': The Country and the City in the Poetry of C.S. Giscombe"
Chiyuma Elliott, Assistant Professor, African American Studies

October 30
"Metropolis in Ruins. Berlin's Interval of Time, 1943-1947"
Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann, Associate Professor, History

November 6
"What does Infrastructure Do? Water in Mexico City"
Ivonne del Valle, Associate Professor, Spanish & Portuguese

November 13
"Neutralizing Poverty: Governing Homelessness in San Francisco"
Chris Herring, PhD Candidate, Sociology

November 20 *due to the wildfires, this talk will be rescheduled for spring 2019*
"Erich Mendelsohn vs. the Skyscraper Primitives: A Berliner in Jazz-Age Manhattan"
Greg Castillo, Associate Professor, Architecture

November 27
End of Semester Wrap-up
Enrolled students only