Growth and Structure of Cities
Students may complete a major or minor in Growth and Structure of Cities. The interdisciplinary major challenges students to understand the dynamic relationships connecting urban spatial organization and the built environment with politics, economics, cultures and societies worldwide. Core introductory classes integrate varied analytic approaches that explore issues of changing forms of the city over time and explore the variety of ways through which people have re-created global urban life across history and across cultures. With these foundations, students pursue their interests through classes in architecture, urban social and economic relations, urban history, studies of planning and the environmental conditions of urban life. Engagement with Philadelphia is an integral part of the curriculum with almost each Cities course requiring site visits and class trips within the region. Advanced seminars further ground the course of study by focusing on specific cities and topics. Opportunities for internships, volunteering, and study abroad also enrich the major.
Complementing the major, students may also choose to do a minor or a second major that allows them to expand upon their focus in Cities with more specialized knowledge, whether in Environmental Studies, Economics, International Studies, Political Science or studies of language and culture. Students also may apply for the 3-2 Program in City and Regional Planning in their junior year, offered in cooperation with the University of Pennsylvania, after filling prerequisites there.
Academic Opportunities
3-2 Program in City and Regional Planning
Majors may apply for the 3-2 Program in City and Regional Planning, offered in conjunction with the Stuart Weitzman School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania. Students interested in this program should meet with faculty early in their sophomore year. They will be required to take CITY 207 (GIS) as well as other courses in planning at the University of Pennsylvania to be eligible.
Cooperation with Other Programs
The Growth and Structure of Cities Department regularly contributes to other departments and programs at Bryn Mawr, Haverford, and Swarthmore, including Africana Studies, Education, Environmental Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Health Studies, History, History of Art, International Studies, Middle Eastern Central Asian Near Eastern Studies, Peace and Conflict Studies, Political Science, and Sociology. The department also partners with Tri-College in Philly and Praxis programs, including internships with organizations in the Greater Philadelphia area.
Major Requirements
A minimum of 15 courses (11 courses in Cities and 4 allied courses in related fields) is required to complete the major.
Two introductory courses (CITY B185 Urban Culture and Society and CITY B190 Form of the City: Histories of the Built Environment) comprise the two-semester introductory sequence. CITY B229 is a writing intensive course on urban topics. CITY B253, CITY B254, and CITY B255 represent architectural history topics, one of which is required.
4 intermediary courses from the department or cross-listed courses are required. This is opportunity to develop methodological and research skills as well as to address topical interests. Examples include: CITY B201 (Geographical Information Systems), CITY B207 (Philadelphia), CITY B217 and CITY B218 (Social Science Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methods) or CITY B226 and CITY B228 (Architectural Design Studio sequence).
2 upper-level seminars are required to home in on a particular topic of interest, and they may include CITY B350, Praxis seminars that collaborate with community groups or organizations, CITY B378, a seminar on the built environment, or CITY B360, which has had many iterations addressing topics such as urban development and law, new urbanism, and incarceration.
CITY B398 is the senior thesis seminar, a requirement for the major and completed in the fall semester of the final year. Students are encouraged to apply for summer research funding the summer before that fall semester. The project comprises of a 40-60 page written text on a topic of choice, based on primary documents and original research and/or design. Students interested in developing an architectural proposal also have the option of completing an architectural thesis which is for 1.5 credits and requires approval from one of the studio instructors. Students who double major with a department that requires a thesis can discuss alternatives to writing two theses.
The remaining 4 allied courses are determined in consultation with a major advisor. These courses can be outside of the Cities department and are intended to give the student an opportunity to include classes related to their interests with the major. For example, students who intend to apply to architecture schools may count Physics and Math courses. Or students who are applying to the 3-2 program, may count their prerequisites from the University of Pennsylvania.
Minor Requirements
Requirements for a minor in the Cities department comprise a minimum of 8 courses. They must include the 4 core requirements: CITY B185, CITY B190, CITY B229, and CITY B253, CITY B254, or CITY B255. And a choice of 2 intermediary courses and 2 upper-level seminars among the Cities course offerings or any of the cross-listed courses.
CITY B185 Urban Culture and Society (1 Unit)
Examines techniques and questions of the social sciences as tools for studying historical and contemporary cities. Topics include political-economic organization, conflict and social differentiation (class, ethnicity and gender), and cultural production and representation. Philadelphia features prominently in discussion, reading and exploration as do global metropolitan comparisons through papers involving fieldwork, critical reading and planning/problem solving using qualitative and quantitative methods.
CITY B190 Form of the City: Histories of the Built Environment (1 Unit)
This course studies the city as a three-dimensional artifact. A variety of factors, geography, economic and population structure, politics, planning, and aesthetics are considered as determinants of urban form.
CITY B201 Introduction to GIS for Social and Environmental Analysis (1 Unit)
This course is designed to introduce the foundations of GIS with emphasis on applications for social and environmental analysis. It deals with basic principles of GIS and its use in spatial analysis and information management. Ultimately, students will design and carry out research projects on topics of their own choosing. Prerequisite: At least sophomore standing and Quantitative Readiness are required (i.e.the quantitative readiness assessment or Quan B001).
CITY B207 Topics in Urban Studies (1 Unit)
This is a topics course. Course content varies.
CITY B217 Quantitative Methods for Urban Research (1 Unit)
This course offers a hands-on introduction to quantitative research methods for urban planning and policy analysis. Students will work on a real-world research project to develop the practical skills needed to design, conduct, and analyze original research at the complexity of a thesis-length project. The course teaches research design (crafting strong research questions and selecting appropriate methods), quantitative research methods (survey design and collection and analysis of secondary socio-spatial data), and data analysis (basic descriptive and inferential statistical analysis using Excel and SPSS). Additionally, students will engage with both the philosophical foundations and real-world best practices of ethical research.
CITY B218 Qualitative Methods for Urban Research (1 Unit)
This course offers a hands-on introduction to qualitative research methods for urban planning and policy analysis. Students will work on a real-world research project to develop the practical skills needed to design, conduct, and analyze original research at the complexity of a thesis-length project. The course teaches research design (crafting strong research questions and selecting appropriate methods), qualitative methods (semi-structured interviews, ethnographic observation, and document analysis), and data analysis (qualitative coding and data analysis using NVivo). Additionally, students will engage with both the philosophical foundations and real-world best practices of ethical research.
CITY B226 Introduction to Architectural Design (1 Unit)
This studio design course introduces the principles of architectural design. Suggested Preparation: drawing, some history of architecture, and permission of instructor.
CITY B228 Problems in Architectural Design (1 Unit)
A continuation of CITY 226 at a more advanced level. Prerequisites: CITY B226 or permission of instructor.
CITY B229 Topics in Comparative Urbanism (1 Unit)
This is a topics course. Course content varies.
CITY B240 Cities of the Global South (1 Unit)
This course surveys the dynamic social and spatial processes that make (and constantly re-make) cities in the Global South. We examine what it means to be a city in the ‘Global South’ and study the commonalities that unite these spaces in a post-colonial, post-Bretton Woods world. That said, this is a course that centers diversity among cases in Latin America, the Middle East/North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Southeast Asia: the unique demands and interventions of people and community groups working for a better urban life, the experimental efforts of local political leaders and planners, and the ways in which particular local histories layer upon themselves to produce a world of singular urban experiences. Local film, memoir, activist non-fiction, and interviews with local planners and practitioners will supplement academic readings to provide a ‘street-level’ view of everyday life in global cities.
CITY B248 Architectural History Research Workshop (1 Unit)
This course aims to build students’ mastery at working with historical documents, both visual and textual, and the rich body of scholarly writings that offer key materials for research in architectural and urban history. The course will operate as a collective workshop that will frame structured adventures in research, starting with a detailed focus on the evolution of places through time. We will work with a wide range of document types, and among our best new friends will be highly detailed old maps and historical views, from watercolors and prints to early photographs. City directories, records of ownership, census information, newspaper notices, and documents related to building construction and form will complement these to fill in key elements in emerging narratives. Such sources will also allow us to explore the agency of individuals in a variety of roles that have shaped places, and the lives framed by those building activities. Beyond focusing on specific sites to construct microhistories, we will also look for larger patterns of built form in which they participate, alongside other contingent narratives from the practices of architects to the activities of developers, well-defined building typologies, and the roots of demographic distributions. In our workshop sessions we will engage different types of evidence and analytical resources through small exercises, imagining the kinds of questions and curiosities such materials might inform, as well as inverting such inquiries, starting with the questions. Our overall model will be to delve in and then report out, in a range of ways.
CITY B250 Topics: Growth & Spatial Org of Cities (1 Unit)
This is a topics course. Course content varies.
CITY B253 Before Modernism: Architecture and Urbanism of the 18th and 19th Centuries (1 Unit)
The course frames the topic of architecture before the impact of 20th century Modernism, with a special focus on the two prior centuries - especially the 19th - in ways that treat them on their own terms rather than as precursors of more modern technologies and forms of expression. The course will integrate urbanistic and vernacular perspectives alongside more familiar landmark exemplars. Key goals and components of the course will include attaining a facility within pertinent bibliographical and digital landscapes, formal analysis and research skills exercised in writing projects, class field-trips, and a nuanced mastery of the narratives embodied in the architecture of these centuries.
CITY B254 History of Modern Architecture (1 Unit)
A survey of the development of modern architecture since the 18th century.
CITY B263 Topics in Reading and Writing the City (1 Unit)
This is a topics course. Course content varies.
CITY B280 Reading Architecture (1 Unit)
Reading and responding to different species of writing about the built environment, old and new, participants will closely weigh intent and form, and will try their own hand at each.
CITY B306 Advanced Fieldwork Techniques: Places in Time (1 Unit)
A hands-on workshop for research into the histories of places, intended to bring students into contact with some of the raw materials of architectural and urban history. A focus will be placed on historical images and texts, and on creating engaging informational experiences that are transparent to their evidentiary basis.
CITY B328 Topics in Advanced GIS (1 Unit)
An advanced course for students with prior GIS experience involving individual projects and collaboration with faculty. Completion of GIS (City 201)
CITY B337 The Chinese City (1 Unit)
This course examines Chinese urbanization as both a physical and social process. Drawing broadly on scholarship in anthropology, political science, geography, and city planning, we will construct a history of the present of Chinese cities. By taking the long view on China’s urban development, this course seeks to contextualize and make sense of the sometimes dazzling, sometimes dismal, and often contested landscape of everyday life in contemporary urban China. Prior familiarity with China and the Chinese language is welcomed but not required.
CITY B340 History and Design Workshop (1 Unit)
This course combines historical and theoretical research with studio and design practice in architecture. It is project based and allows students to work collaboratively on research questions relevant to built environments. This iteration tracks the form and choices shaping three successive built landscapes over five centuries – from the agricultural communities of Quakers in Wales and the Welsh Tract in Lower Merion in the 17th and 18th centuries to the commuter suburb of the 19th and 20th. The course also looks ahead from this history as a studio collectively exploring key elements of a “New Bryn Mawr” as an idealized sustainable community of 1000 residents whose design specifically addresses environmental concerns, inequality, anxiety, joblessness, and spatial fragmentation.
CITY B345 Advanced Topics in Environment and Society (1 Unit)
This is a topics course. Topics vary.
CITY B350 Urban Projects: Cities Praxis (1 Unit)
In this course advanced students will work with local groups around concrete projects. Class sessions will convene to discuss background readings as well as evaluation of tools and experiences.
CITY B356 The Politics of Public Art (1 Unit)
In this class we will explore the politics of public art. While we will look at the political messaging of public art, we will also seek to understand how public art, through its integration into a social geography, has a political impact beyond its meaning. We will see how art claims public space and structures social action, how art shapes social groups, and how art channels economic flows or government power. By tracing the ways that art is situated in public space, we will examine how art enters into urban contest and global inequality. Class activity will include exploration of public art and students will be introduced to key concepts of urban spatial analysis to help interrogate this art. One 200-level course in Social Sciences, Humanities, or Arts fields, or permission of the instructor.
CITY B360 Topics: Urban Culture and Society (1 Unit)
This is a topics course. Course content varies.
CITY B361 Urban Theory (1 Unit)
Urban theory is a tool with which to critique existing cities, a position from which to imagine cities yet to come, and a structure with which to generate interventions in the space between. This course will trace the intellectual lineages of contemporary critical and postmodern urban theory and put the ‘-isms’ into practice to help make sense of the forces that differentiate and segregate individuals – and those that bring us together as urban citizens. Prerequisite: CITY B185 or prior course work in social theory.
CITY B365 Topics: Techniques of the City (1 Unit)
This is a topics course. Course content varies.
CITY B377 Topics in Modern Architecture (1 Unit)
This is a topics course on modern architecture. Topics vary.
CITY B378 Formative Landscapes: The Architecture and Planning of American Collegiate Campuses (1 Unit)
The campus and buildings familiar to us here at the College reflect a long and rich design conversation regarding communicative form, architectural innovation, and orchestrated planning. This course will explore that conversation through varied examples, key models, and shaping conceptions over time.
CITY B398 Senior Seminar (1 Unit)
An intensive research seminar designed to guide students in writing a senior thesis.
CITY B401 Directed Reading (1 Unit)
CITY B403 Independent Study (1 Unit)
CITY B415 Teaching Assistant (1 Unit)
An exploration of course planning, pedagogy and creative thinking as students work to help others understand pathways they have already explored in introductory and writing classes. This opportunity is available only to advanced students of highest standing by professorial invitation.
CITY B420 Praxis Fieldwork Seminar (1 Unit)
Note: Students are eligible to take up to two Praxis Fieldwork Seminars or Praxis Independent Studies during their time at Bryn Mawr.
CITY B425 Praxis III: Independent Study (1 Unit)
Praxis III courses are Independent Study courses and are developed by individual students, in collaboration with faculty and field supervisors. A Praxis courses is distinguished by genuine collaboration with fieldsite organizations and by a dynamic process of reflection that incorporates lessons learned in the field into the classroom setting and applies theoretical understanding gained through classroom study to work done in the broader community. Note: Students are eligible to take up to two Praxis Fieldwork Seminars or Praxis Independent Studies during their time at Bryn Mawr.
CITY B450 Urban Internships/Praxis (1 Unit)
Individual opportunities to engage in praxis in the greater Philadelphia area; internships must be arranged prior to registration for the semester in which the internship is taken. Prerequisite: permission of instructor.
AFST B101 Black Matters: Introduction to Black Studies (1 Unit)
This interdisciplinary course situates the study of Black lives, known interchangeably as African American Studies, Black Studies, Africana Studies, or African Diaspora Studies, within the context of ongoing struggles against anti-Black racism. We will explore the founding principles and purposes of the field, the evolution of its imperatives, its key debates, and the lives and missions of its progenitors and practitioners. In doing so we will survey, broadly and deeply, the diverse historical, political, social, cultural, religious/spiritual, and economic experiences and expressions of the African Diaspora in the Americas and beyond.
AFST B125 Introduction to Black Geographies (1 Unit)
This course interrogates the relationship between Blackness and the social production (and imagining) of space and place across the Americas. Drawing on geography, history, ethnography, and other disciplines in the humanities, we will examine the tensions and possibilities that emerge when Black people are rendered “ungeographic" (McKittrick 2006) as a fundamental component of colonial-racial capitalism. We explore how Blackness across the diaspora is shaped by anti-Blackness but also by a continuous tradition of creating spaces of freedom.
AFST B204 #BlackLivesMatterEverywhere (1 Unit)
#BlackLivesMatterEverywhere: Ethnographies & Theories on the African Diaspora is a interdisciplinary course closely examines political, cultural, intellectual, and spiritual mobilizations for Black Lives on local, global and hemispheric levels. We will engage an array of materials ranging from literature, history, oral histories, folklore, dance, music, popular culture, social media, ethnography, and film/documentaries. By centering the political and intellectual labor of Black women and LGBTQ folks at the forefront of the movements for Black Lives, we unapologetically excavate how #BlackLivesMatterEverywhere has a long and rich genealogy in the African diaspora. Lastly, students will be immersed in Black queer feminist theorizations on diaspora, political movements, and the multiplicities of Blackness.
ANTH B216 Transnational Movements Across the Americas (1 Unit)
Globalization has enabled the movement of people, the trade of goods, and the exchange of culture and ideas but it has also created unprecedented problems such as inequality, exploitation, and environmental crisis. However, the networks formed by globalization have also created exciting opportunities for activists to organize across borders, tackle issues of global concern, and develop creative solutions. This course will introduce students to the study of transnational social movements with a focus on the Americas. We will make use of ethnographic case studies, documentary film, and an interdisciplinary social science literature to examine transnational movements on a variety of themes such as: human rights, the rights of indigenous peoples, the environment, biodiversity conservation, climate justice, the alter-globalization movement, and the rights of nature. Students will learn about the historical context of transnationalism, theories of social movement and collective action, the study of networks of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and the strategies mobilized by transnational actors to advocate on issues of social and environmental justice. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing and up; or first years who have taken Anth 102
ANTH B223 The Global Middle East: Colonialism, Oil, the War on Terror (1 Unit)
A central premise of this course is that European colonial intervention in the Middle East did not just impact the Middle East, but mobilized social, material, and ideological projects which fundamentally transformed Europe itself, producing the modern “West” and the contemporary globe. Challenging tendencies to think of the Middle East as distant and different, students will explore the ways that Euro-American intervention in the Middle East shapes our everyday lives in the contemporary U.S. We will explore how the economy, culture, identity, and social organization of contemporary life in Europe and the U.S. builds off of, and is dependent upon, this history of intervention. We will conclude with an examination of global solidarity movements, with a focus on Black American activists’ solidarity work in the Arab world, to ask how this global interconnection makes the Middle East an important site for building and imagining a more just world.
ANTH B259 The Creation of Early Complex Societies (1 Unit)
In the last 10,000 years, humans around the world have transitioned from organizing themselves through small, egalitarian social networks to living within large and socially complex societies. This archaeology course takes an anthropological perspective to seek to understand the ways that human groups created these complex societies. We will explore the archaeological evidence for the development of complexity in the past, including the development of villages and early cities, the institutionalization of social and political-economic inequalities, and the rise of states and empires. Alongside discussion of current theoretical ideas about complexity, the course will compare and contrast the evolutionary trajectories of complex societies in different world regions. Case studies will emphasize the pre-Columbian histories of complex societies in the Americas as well as some of the early complex societies of the Old World.
ANTH B354 Political Economy, Gender, Ethnicity and Transformation in Vietnam (1 Unit)
Today, Vietnam is in the midst of dramatic social, economic and political changes brought about through a shift from a central economy to a market/capitalist economy since the late 1980s. These changes have resulted in urbanization, a rise in consumption, changes in land use, movement of people, environmental consequences of economic development, and shifts in social and economic relationships and cultural practices as the country has moved from low income to middle income status. This course examines culture and society in Vietnam focusing largely on contemporary Vietnam, but with a view to continuities and historical precedent in past centuries. In this course, we will draw on anthropological studies of Vietnam, as well as literature and historical studies. Relationships between the individual, family, gender, ethnicity, community, land, and state will pervade the topics addressed in the course, as will the importance of political economy, nation, and globalization. In addition to class seminar discussions, students will view documentary and fictional films about Vietnamese culture. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or higher or first years with ANTH 102.
ANTH B356 The Politics of Public Art (1 Unit)
In this class we will explore the politics of public art. While we will look at the political messaging of public art, we will also seek to understand how public art, through its integration into a social geography, has a political impact beyond its meaning. We will see how art claims public space and structures social action, how art shapes social groups, and how art channels economic flows or government power. By tracing the ways that art is situated in public space, we will examine how art enters into urban contest and global inequality. Class activity will include exploration of public art and students will be introduced to key concepts of urban spatial analysis to help interrogate this art. One 200-level course in Social Sciences, Humanities, or Arts fields, or permission of the instructor
ANTH B364 Anthropology of Global Public Health (1 Unit)
This course will use an anthropological lens to explore the field of contemporary global public health. Through readings and ethnographic case studies in cultural anthropology, medical anthropology, applied and critical anthropology, and related social sciences, the class will examine the participants and institutions that make up the production of global health, as well as the knowledge, and value production that have shaped agendas, policies and practices in global health, both historically and in the contemporary. The course will also explore anthropology’s relationship to and perspectives on the history of global health. We will examine how local communities, local knowledge and political forces intersect with, shape, and are shaped by global initiatives to impact diseases, treatments, and health care delivery. As well, what the effects are on individuals, families and children, communities, urban and rural areas, and nations. Among other topics, the course will explore health disparities, epidemics/pandemics, global mental health, climate change and infectious diseases, chronic illness, violence, and diseases such as polio, HIV/AIDS, Covid-19, Tuberculosis, etc. Prerequisite(s): ANTH B102/H103 recommended; sophomore standing or higher
ANTH B367 Policing the Crisis 2020: Police Narrative and Black Lives Matter (1 Unit)
The Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, sparked by the police murder of George Floyd, led to a collapse in public support for the police. Radical demands to defund or abolish the police gained prominence and public legitimacy. This course studies the ways that police and their allies have worked to reassert police authority in the years since 2020. We will draw on Stuart Hall’s classic essay, “Policing the Crisis,” which examined police propaganda after a similar upheaval in the 1970s. Using Hall’s work as a model, we will design and conduct a research project, using archival and qualitative methods to track the reassertion of police authority since 2020. At the end of the course, we will publicize our findings.
ARCH B203 Building the Polis: Ancient Greek Cities and Sanctuaries (1 Unit)
A study of the co-development of the Greek city-states and their sanctuaries. Archaeological evidence is surveyed in its historic context. The political formation of the city-state and the role of religion is presented, and the political, economic, and religious institutions of the city-states are explored with a focus on regional variations in timelines of development, building styles, and connectivity. The logistics of building construction, religious travel, and interregional influences will also be addressed.
ARCH B215 Classical Art (1 Unit)
A survey of the visual arts of ancient Greece and Rome from the Bronze Age through Late Imperial times (circa 3000 B.C.E. to 300 C.E.). Major categories of artistic production are examined in historical and social context, including interactions with neighboring areas and cultures; methodological and interpretive issues are highlighted.
ARCH B244 Great Empires of the Ancient Near East (1 Unit)
A survey of the history, material culture, political and religious ideologies of, and interactions among, the five great empires of the ancient Near East of the second and first millennia B.C.E.: New Kingdom Egypt, the Hittite Empire in Anatolia, the Assyrian and Babylonian Empires in Mesopotamia, and the Persian Empire in Iran.
ARCH B249 The Archaeology of Urban Revolutions in Western Asia (1 Unit)
This course examines the archaeology of one of the most fundamental developments to have occurred in human society in the last 6,000 years, the origins of cities. Via assigned readings, class work and lectures we will consider the varied factors which led (or did not lead) to the emergence of cities, questioning what cities were (and are) and how they functioned in the ancient world. We will explore different trajectories towards urbanism that can be identified in the archaeological record and consider societies that did not experience these changes. By exploring processes and practices over the long-term, students will address issues of inequality in the earliest urban societies, developing an understanding of how axes of power and difference interacted to produce inequalities and hierarchies. We will also discuss the impacts these developments have had, and continue to have, on modern society and culture in the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. Themes covered will include the ‘urban revolution’, rurality and urbanism, urban planning and growth, houses and households, communication and mobility, climate and environment, power and inequality.
ARCH B252 Pompeii (1 Unit)
Introduces students to a nearly intact archaeological site whose destruction by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 C.E. was recorded by contemporaries. The discovery of Pompeii in the mid-1700s had an enormous impact on 18th- and 19th-century views of the Roman past as well as styles and preferences of the modern era. Informs students in classical antiquity, urban life, city structure, residential architecture, home decoration and furnishing, wall painting, minor arts and craft and mercantile activities within a Roman city.
ARCH B260 Daily Life in Ancient Greece and Rome (1 Unit)
The often-praised achievements of the classical cultures arose from the realities of day-to-day life. This course surveys the rich body of material and textual evidence pertaining to how ancient Greeks and Romans -- famous and obscure alike -- lived and died. Topics include housing, food, clothing, work, leisure, and family and social life.
ARCH B316 Trade and Transport in the Ancient World (1 Unit)
Issues of trade, commerce and production of export goods are addressed with regard to the Bronze Age and Iron Age cultures of Mesopotamia, Arabia, Iran and south Asia. Crucial to these systems is the development of means of transport via maritime routes and on land. Archaeological evidence for traded goods and shipwrecks is used to map the emergence of sea-faring across the Indian Ocean and Gulf.
ARCH B352 Ancient Egyptian Archaeology (1 Unit)
This course will examine two aspects of ancient Egyptian Archaeology. This first is the history of archaeological work in Egypt: tracing methodological developments, the impact of imperialism, colonialism, and race-based theories of the 19th and early 20th centuries on the development of archaeological thought, and where the field of archaeology in Egypt stands today. The second will examine settlements in ancient Egypt - from workmen's villages to planned "temple towns" to "lost cities" - in order to understand the built environment inhabited by the ancient Egyptians. Although the material that the ancient Egyptians used to build their homes, as well as their location in the flood-plain, often makes finding and studying settlements difficult, there are sources of evidence that can help us to rediscover where and how the ancient Egyptians lived, and allow us to reevaluate older theories about ancient Egyptian culture and society.
ARCH B505 Topics in Ancient Athens (1 Unit)
This is a topics course. Topics vary.
BIOL B262 Urban Ecosystems (1 Unit)
Cities can be considered ecosystems whose functions are highly influenced by human activity. This course will address many of the living and non-living components of urban ecosystems, as well as their unique processes. Using an approach focused on case studies, the course will explore the ecological and environmental problems that arise from urbanization, and also examine solutions that have been attempted. Prerequisite: BIOL B110 or B111 or ENVS B101.
ECON B208 Labor Economics (1 Unit)
Analysis of labor markets. Focuses on the economic forces and public policies that determine wage rates and unemployment. Specific topics include: human capital, family decision marking, discrimination, immigration, technological change, compensating differentials, and signaling. Prerequisite: ECON B105.
ECON B213 Industrial organization and Antitrust (1 Unit)
Introduction to the economics of industrial organization and regulation, focusing on policy options for ensuring that corporations enhance economic welfare and the quality of life. Topics include firm behavior in imperfectly competitive markets; theoretical bases of antitrust laws; regulation of product and occupational safety, environmental pollution, and truth in advertising. Prerequisite: ECON B105.
ECON B214 Public Finance (1 Unit)
Analysis of government’s role in resource allocation, emphasizing effects of tax and expenditure programs on income distribution and economic efficiency. Topics include sources of inefficiency in markets and possible government responses; federal budget composition; social insurance and antipoverty programs; U.S. tax structure and incidence. Prerequisites: ECON B105.
ECON B215 Urban Economics (1 Unit)
Micro- and macroeconomic theory applied to urban economic behavior. Topics include housing and land use; transportation; urban labor markets; urbanization; and demand for and financing of urban services. Prerequisite: ECON B105.
ECON B225 Economic Development (1 Unit)
Examination of the issues related to and the policies designed to promote economic development in the developing economies of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. Focus is on why some developing economies grow faster than others and why some growth paths are more equitable, poverty reducing, and environmentally sustainable than others. Includes consideration of the impact of international trade and investment policy, macroeconomic policies (exchange rate, monetary and fiscal policy) and sector policies (industry, agriculture, education, population, and environment) on development outcomes in a wide range of political and institutional contexts. Prerequisite: ECON B105.
ECON B236 Introduction to International Economics (1 Unit)
An introduction to international economics through theory, policy issues, and problems. The course surveys international trade and finance, as well as topics in international economics. It investigates why and what a nation trades, the consequences of such trade, globalized production, the role of trade policy, the economics of immigration, the behavior and effects of exchange rates, and the macroeconomic implications of trade and capital flows.Prerequisites: ECON B105. The course is not open to students who have taken ECON B316 or B348.
ECON B314 The Economics of Social Policy (1 Unit)
Introduces students to the economic rationale behind U.S. government programs and the evaluation of U.S. social policies. Topics include minimum wage, unemployment, safety net programs, education, health insurance, and climate change. Additionally, the instructor and students will jointly select topics of special interest to the class. Emphasis will be placed on the use of statistics to evaluate social policy. Writing intensive. Prerequisites: ECON B200 and (ECON B253 or ECON B304)
ECON B324 The Economics of Discrimination and Inequality (1 Unit)
Explores the causes and consequences of discrimination and inequality in economic markets. Topics include economic theories of discrimination and inequality, evidence of contemporary race- and gender-based inequality, detecting discrimination, identifying sources of racial and gender inequality, and identifying sources of overall economic inequality. Additionally, the instructor and students will jointly select supplementary topics of specific interest to the class. Possible topics include: discrimination in historical markets, disparity in legal treatments, issues of family structure, and education gaps. Writing Intensive. Prerequisites: At least one 200-level applied microeconomics elective; ECON 253 or 304; ECON 200.
ECON B394 Research Seminar: Labor Economics (1 Unit)
Thesis seminar. Each student does a semester-long research project on a relevant topic of interest. Research topics in discrimination, unionization, human capital, migration, labor supply, labor demand, and employment/unemployment are appropriate. Prerequisites: ECON 200; ECON 208 or 314 or 324; ECON 253 or 304.
EDUC B266 Geographies of School and Learning: Urban Education Reconsidered (1 Unit)
This course examines issues, challenges, and possibilities of urban education in contemporary America. We use as critical lenses issues of race, class, and culture; urban learners, teachers, and school systems; and restructuring and reform. While we look at urban education nationally over several decades, we use Philadelphia as a focal “case” that students investigate through documents and school placements. Weekly fieldwork in a school required.
ENGL B364 Slum Fiction: From Dickens to The Wire (1 Unit)
David Simon’s acclaimed television show The Wire has repeatedly been related to the Victorian novel. This course links Victorian London and 20th-century Baltimore by studying: literary relations between Dickens and Poe; slum writing; the rise of the state institution; a genealogy of serial fiction from the nineteenth century novel to television drama.
ENVS B202 Environment and Society (1 Unit)
An exploration of the ways in which different cultural, economic, and political settings have shaped issue emergence and policy making. We examine the politics of particular environmental issues in selected countries and regions, paying special attention to the impact of environmental movements. We also assess the prospects for international cooperation in addressing global environmental problems such as climate change.
GEOL B209 Natural Hazards (1 Unit)
A quantitative approach to understanding Earth processes that impact human societies. We will examine earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, storms, and floods and explore the risks that they pose to communities. Course emphases include the fundamental physical principles and processes that govern natural hazards, approaches to mitigating the effects of natural disasters and responding in their aftermath, and examples of natural disasters from the recent and historical past. Lecture three hours a week.
GERM B217 Representing Diversity in German Cinema (1 Unit)
German society has undergone drastic changes as a result of immigration. Traditional notions of Germanness have been and are still being challenged and subverted. This course uses films and visual media to examine the experiences of various minority groups living in Germany. Students will learn about the history of immigration of different ethnic groups, including Turkish Germans, Afro-Germans, Asian Germans, Arab Germans, German Jews, and ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe. We will explore discourses on migration, racism, xenophobia, integration, and citizenship. We will seek to understand not only the historical and contemporary contexts for these films but also their relevance for reshaping German society. Students will be introduced to modern German cinema from the silent era to the present. They will acquire terminology and methods for reading films as fictional and aesthetic representations of history and politics, and analyze identity construction in the worlds of the real and the reel. This course is taught in English
GERM B245 Interdisciplinary Approaches to German Literature and Culture (1 Unit)
This is a topics course. Taught in German. Course content varies. Previous topics include, Women’s Narratives on Modern Migrancy, Exile, and Diasporas; Nation and Identity in Post-War Austria.
GERM B321 Advanced Topics in German Cultural Studies (1 Unit)
This is a topics course. Course content varies. Recent topic titles include: Asia and Germany through Film; The Letter, the Spirit, and Beyond: German-Jewish Writers and Jewish Culture in the 18th and 19th Century.
GNST B145 Introduction to Latin American, Iberian and Latina/o Studies (1 Unit)
A broad, interdisciplinary survey of themes uniting and dividing societies from the Iberian Peninsula to the Americas. The class introduces the methods and interests of all departments in the concentration, posing problems of cultural continuity and change, globalization and struggles within dynamic histories, political economies, and creative expressions. Course is taught in English.
GNST B245 Introduction to Latin American, Iberian and Latina/o Studies (1 Unit)
A broad, interdisciplinary survey of themes uniting and dividing societies from the Iberian Peninsula to the Americas. The class introduces the methods and interests of all departments in the concentration, posing problems of cultural continuity and change, globalization and struggles within dynamic histories, political economies, and creative expressions. Course is taught in English.
HART B103 Survey of Western Architecture (1 Unit)
The major traditions in Western architecture are illustrated through detailed analysis of selected examples from classical antiquity to the present. The evolution of architectural design and building technology, and the larger intellectual, aesthetic, and social context in which this evolution occurred, are considered. This course was formerly numbered HART B253; students who previously completed HART B253 may not repeat this course.
HART B110 Introduction to Medieval Art and Architecture (1 Unit)
This course takes a broad geographic and chronological scope, allowing for full exposure to the rich variety of objects and monuments that fall under the rubric of “medieval” art and architecture. We focus on the Latin and Byzantine Christian traditions, but also consider works of art and architecture from the Islamic and Jewish spheres. Topics to be discussed include: the role of religion in artistic development and expression; secular traditions of medieval art and culture; facture and materiality in the art of the middle ages; the use of objects and monuments to convey political power and social prestige; gender dynamics in medieval visual culture; and the contribution of medieval art and architecture to later artistic traditions. This course was formerly numbered HART B212; students who previously completed HART B212 may not repeat this course.
HART B268 Telling Bryn Mawr Histories: Topics, Sources, and Methods (1 Unit)
This course introduces students to archival and object-based research methods, using the College's built environment and curatorial and archival collections as our laboratory. Students will explore buildings, documents, objects, and themes in relation to the history of Bryn Mawr College. Students will frame an original group research project to which each student will contribute an individual component. Prerequisite: An interest in exploring and reinterpreting the institutional and architectural history of Bryn Mawr College and a willingness to work collaboratively on a shared project.
HART B310 Topics in Medieval Art (1 Unit)
This is a topics course. Course content varies. Prerequisite: one course in History of Art at the 100- or 200-level or permission of the instructor. Enrollment preference given to majors and minors in History of Art.
HART B330 Topics in Renaissance and Baroque Art (1 Unit)
This is a topics course. Course content varies. This course was formerly numbered HART B323.
HART B346 The History of London Since the Eighteenth Century (1 Unit)
Selected topics of social, literary, and architectural concern in the history of London, emphasizing London since the 18th century. This course was formerly numbered HART B355; students who previously completed HART B355 may not repeat this course. Prerequisite: one course in History of Art at the 100- or 200-level or permission of the instructor. Enrollment preference given to majors and minors in History of Art.
HART B370 Topics in History & Theory of Photography (1 Unit)
This is a topics course. Course content varies. Prerequisite: one course in History of Art at the 100- or 200-level or permission of the instructor. Enrollment preference given to majors and minors in History of Art. This course was formerly numbered HART B308.
HART B375 Topics in Contemporary Art (1 Unit)
This is a topics course. Course content varies. Prerequisite: one course in History of Art at the 100- or 200-level or permission of the instructor. Enrollment preference given to majors and minors in History of Art. This course was formerly numbered HART B380.
HART B380 Topics in Film Studies (1 Unit)
This is a topics course. Course content varies. Prerequisite: one course in History of Art at the 100- or 200-level or permission of the instructor. Enrollment preference given to majors and minors in History of Art and Film Studies. This course was formerly numbered HART B334.
HIST B208 Monuments, Museums, and Memory (1 Unit)
In this course we will examine how U.S. history circulates in public, investigating the ways scholarly, curatorial, archival, and creative practices shape popular conceptions of the American past, in particular understandings of racial, gender, sexual, and class oppression and resistance. Students will build skills in historical interpretation and archival research and explore possibilities and challenges in preserving and presenting the past in a variety of public contexts—monuments, memorials, museums, historical sites, movies and television, genealogy, and community-based history projects.
HIST B237 Themes in Modern African History (1 Unit)
This is a topics course. Course content varies
HIST B257 British Empire I: Capitalism and Slavery (1 Unit)
Focusing on the Atlantic slave trade and the slave plantation mode of production, this course explores English colonization, and the emergence and the decline of British Empire in the Americas and Caribbean from the 17th through the late 20th centuries. It tracks some of the intersecting and overlapping routes—and roots—connecting histories and politics within and between these “new” world locations. It also tracks the further and proliferating links between developments in these regions and the histories and politics of regions in the “old” world, from the north Atlantic to the South China sea.
HIST B319 Topics in Modern European History (1 Unit)
This is a topics course. Course content varies.
HIST B325 Topics in Social History (1 Unit)
This a topics course that explores various themes in American social history. Course content varies. Course may be repeated.
HIST B341 Go Burbs: Local Histories of Modern America (1 Unit)
If "all politics is local," then so too is all history. This course takes a local approach to the history of the United States, focusing on the nearby Philadelphia suburbs as a microcosm of modern American society and culture. Paying particular attention to Delaware County, students will investigate local history and local cultural sites and integrate them into a broader historical context.
ITAL B240 Philadelphia the Global City: The Italian Legacy across Time (1 Unit)
This course investigates the history and evolution of Philadelphia as a globalized and multi-ethnic city, using as a case study for this analysis the impact and legacy of transnational Italian culture across the centuries. By adopting a cross-cultural, trans-historical, and interdisciplinary approach, the course explores the influence that — along with and in intersection with many other cultural inputs — also Italian arts and cultures have exerted on the city, making it become the cosmopolitan and transnational urban environment that it is today. Throughout the centuries and way before Italy even started existing as a state, Philadelphians traveled to the peninsula and brought back objects to display in emerging cultural institutions or studied the country’s art and architecture styles to shape the evolving aspect of the city. Simultaneously, incoming immigration formed new neighborhoods — such as South Philly, home to the Italian Market — and Italian figures came to prominence and became part of the social fabric of the city. Nowadays, many non-profit organizations work to preserve the traces that Italian migrants left within Philadelphia’s multi-ethnic urban environment as well as to extend the city's global profile and celebrate its heritage and diversity. Through specific field trips, on-site experiential activities, and forms of civic engagement this course highlights both the enduring fascination of Philadelphians with Italy (or with the idea thereof) across the centuries and the role that the Italian Diaspora played in the development of the city. The course ultimately challenges geographical, chronological, and cultural boundaries by showing how places, arts, identities that today are perceived as ‘American’ have in most cases an intersectional, multi-ethnic, and cross-cultural history to tell. This course will be taught in Philadelphia as part of the Tri-Co Philly Program. All readings and class discussion will be in English, and no knowledge of Italian is required. Students seeking Italian credits will complete their assignments in the target language.
ITAL B318 Falling Statues: myth-making in literature, politics and art (1 Unit)
We have become accustomed to the rituals of the dismissal of the heroes of the past: we tear down statues, we rename buildings and places. But how did we get there? How, why and by whom are heroes constructed? When old heroes are questioned, what substitutes them? How are the raise and fall of heroes tied to shifting models of masculinity, womanhood, power and the state? In this course, we will explore these questions focusing on Italy and Russia, two countries that in the 19th and 20th century went through several cycles of construction and deconstruction of their political heroes. In the first part of the course, we will investigate the codification of the “type” of the freedom-fighter in the representations of the protagonists of 19th-century European revolutionary movements, focusing on the links between the Italian Risorgimento and the anti-Tsarist movement in Russia, culminating in the Bolshevik revolution of 1917. From the pamphlets that consecrated the Italian Garibaldi as the “hero of the two worlds” to the autobiographies of the Russian terrorists and the transcripts of their trials, we will investigate myth-making as a constitutive part of political movements and reflect on the models of masculinity and womanhood at the foundation of the “typical” revolutionary hero. In the second part of the semester, we will focus on Stalinism and Fascism, systems that exploited their revolutionary roots to mobilize supporters in favor of oppressive institutions. Finally, we will discuss the many ways in which 19th - and 20th-century heroes have been confronted, neutralized, dismantled – and the many ways in which their models still haunt us. We will focus on literary texts and political speeches, but we will also analyze propaganda posters, movies, paintings, photographs, monuments and even street names. For your final project, you will have the option of building on our class discussions to explore myth-making in contemporary movements or forms of deconstruction of existing heroes.
MEST B210 The Art and Architecture of Islamic Spirituality (1 Unit)
This course examines how Muslim societies across time and space have used art and architecture in different ways to express and understand inner dimensions of spirituality and mysticism. Topics to be studied include: the calligraphical remnants of the early Islamic period; inscriptions found on buildings and gravestones; the majestic architecture of mosques, shrines, seminaries, and Sufi lodges; the brilliant arts of the book; the commemorative iconography and passion plays of Ashura devotion; the souvenir culture of modern shrine visitation; and the modern art of twenty-first century Sufism. Readings include works from history, religious studies, anthropology, sociology, and the history of art and architecture.
POLS B224 Comparative Political Phil: China, Greece, and the "West" (1 Unit)
An introduction to the dialogic construction of comparative political philosophy, using texts from several cultures or worlds of thought: ancient and modern China, ancient Greece, and the modern West. The course will have three parts. First, a consideration of the synchronous emergence of philosophy in ancient (Axial Age) China and Greece; second, the 19th century invention of the modern "West" and Chinese responses to this development; and third, the current discussions and debates about globalization, democracy, and human rights now going on in China and the West. Prerequisite: At least one course in either Philosophy, Political Theory, or East Asian Studies, or consent of the instructor.
POLS B256 Global Politics of Climate Change (1 Unit)
This course will introduce students to important political issues raised by climate change locally, nationally, and internationally, paying particular attention to the global implications of actions at the national and subnational levels. It will focus not only on specific problems, but also on solutions; students will learn about some of the technological and policy innovations that are being developed worldwide in response to the challenges of climate change. Only open to students in 360 program.
POLS B279 City and Immigration (1 Unit)
This course explores how immigration has shaped the social, economic, and political development of American cities. We will examine urban governance, racial and ethnic politics, and the formation of immigrant communities through foundational theories and contemporary case studies. Students will engage with frameworks such as political machines (Erie, Banfield & Wilson), urban regime (Stone), urban growth regimes (Logan & Molotch), and political incorporation (Browning, Marshall, and Tabb), applying them to modern-day issues like sanctuary cities, gentrification, labor resistance, and coalition politics. Particular attention will be paid to Philadelphia—a city shaped by waves of migration, industrial transformation, and immigrant-led activism. American cities have always been built at the crossroads of aspiration and exclusion. From the German and Irish wards of 19th-century Philadelphia to Korean grocery stores in post-uprising Los Angeles, immigrant communities have created, contested, and redefined the urban experience. Yet these same communities have often been scapegoated, surveilled, or displaced by freeways, by finance, by reformers in the name of progress. This course invites students to trace these contradictions through the lens of gender, race, and class, from Chinese homecare workers in New York City to Puerto Rican migrants in Philadelphia to the immigrants resisting displacement today. We will read theory, walk the streets of Chinatown, and ask: who builds the city—and who is it for?
POLS B321 Technology and Politics (1 Unit)
A multi-media analysis of the complex role of technology in political and social life. We focus on the relationship between technological change and democratic governance. We begin with historical and contemporary Luddism as well as pro-technology movements around the world. Substantive issue areas include security and surveillance, electoral politics, economic development and women's empowerment, civil rights, warfare, social media and information/disinformation politics, agriculture, climate change and energy politics, and pandemic response. This course is open to all students who have the prerequisites. It also counts as a thesis prep course for political science majors. Prerequisite: One course in Political Science, or ENVS 202, or permission of instructor. Writing attentive.
SOCL B200 Urban Sociology (1 Unit)
How do social forces shape the places we live? What makes a place urban? What is a suburb and why do we have them? What’s environmental racism? Why are cities in the US still highly racially segregated? We will take on these questions and more in this introduction to urban sociology. Classic and contemporary urban social theories will inform our investigations of empirical research on pressing urban issues such as housing segregation, the environment, suburbanization, transportation and inequality. The course has a special focus on the social, economic and political forces that shape in urban space in ways that perpetuate inequality for African Americans.
SOCL B205 Social Inequality (1 Unit)
In this course, we will explore the extent, causes, and consequences of social and economic inequality in the U.S. We will begin by discussing key theories and the intersecting dimensions of inequality along lines of income and wealth, race and ethnicity, and gender. We will then follow a life-course perspective to trace the institutions through which inequality is structured, experienced, and reproduced through the family, neighborhoods, the educational system, labor markets and workplaces, and the criminal justice system.
SOCL B235 Mexican-American Communities (1 Unit)
For its unique history, the number of migrants, and the two countries' proximity, Mexican migration to the United States represents an exceptional case in world migration. There is no other example of migration with more than 100 years of history. The copious presence of migrants concentrated in a host country, such as we have in the case of the 11.7 million Mexican migrants residing in the United States, along with another 15 million Mexican descendants, is unparalleled. The 1,933-mile-long border shared by the two countries makes it one of the longest boundary lines in the world and, unfortunately, also one of the most dangerous frontiers in the world today. We will examine the different economic, political, social and cultural forces that have shaped this centenarian migration influx and undertake a macro-, meso-, and micro-levels of analysis. At the macro-level of political economy, we will investigate the economic interdependency that has developed between Mexico and the U.S. over different economic development periods of these countries, particularly, the role the Mexican labor force has played to boosting and sustaining both the Mexican and the American economies. At the meso-level, we will examine different institutions both in Mexico and the U.S. that have determined the ways in which millions of Mexican migrate to this country. Last, but certainly not least, we will explore the impacts that both the macro-and meso-processes have had on the micro-level by considering the imperatives, aspirations, and dreams that have prompted millions of people to leave their homes and communities behind in search of better opportunities. This major life decision of migration brings with it a series of social transformations in family and community networks, this will look into the cultural impacts in both the sending and receiving migrant communities. In sum, we will come to understand how these three levels of analysis work together.
SOCL B260 A City of Homes: Housing Issues in Philadelphia (1 Unit)
In the late 19th century, Philadelphia’s boosters described the city as the “City of Homes” to celebrate its success compared to other major cities in the US in providing housing and opportunities for homeownership for its growing population of workers. This class investigates the unique history of housing in Philadelphia. We will cover the problems the city has faced and still faces in providing affordable housing, fair access to housing and creating diverse and vibrant neighborhoods and its great legacy of innovation in this area. We will use Philadelphia as a case for investigating the relationship between housing, the economy, locational resources, and neighborhood development. We will see how racial capitalism shapes what housing is built, where it is built and who has access to it. Through the Tri-Co Philly program students will engage with this literature as part of an immersive experience in the city and gain a deeper understanding of the practice of engaging with housing issues for professionals and political actors.
SOCL B276 Making Sense of Race (1 Unit)
What is the meaning of race in contemporary US and global society? How are these meanings (re)produced, resisted, and refused? What meanings might we desire or imagine as alternatives? In this course, we will approach these questions through an array of sources while tracking our own thinking about and experiences of raced-ness. Course material will survey sociological notions of the social construction of race, empirical studies of lived experiences of race, and creative fiction and non-fiction material intended to catalyze thinking about alternative possibilities.
SOCL B338 The Black Diaspora in the US: African and Caribbean Communities. (1 Unit)
An examination of the socioeconomic experiences of immigrants who arrived in the United States since the landmark legislation of 1965. After exploring issues of development and globalization at “home” leading to migration, the course proceeds with the study of immigration theories. Major attention is given to the emergence of transnational identities and the transformation of communities, particularly in the northeastern United States.