This English-speaking seminar deals with the development and planning of
urban spaces and urban infrastructures in the “long twentieth century”
(from the end of the nineteenth century until the first decades of the
twenty-first century, a key period in the history of technology). Along
with theoretical and methodological questions, we will discuss
case-studies on water infrastructure, city planning, communication
technologies, transport systems, and places of consumption. Through the
history of urban technology and planning, we will approach central
issues in twentieth-century history, including (discourses on)
modernization, public hygiene, the Cold War, and (utopian) representations
of future cities. Though focusing on Europe and North America, the
seminar includes examples from Istanbul, Caucasian countries, and Dutch colonies, making a global and transnational perspective
possible.
Students are expected to actively participate in the seminar, read and
understand the texts, prepare three questions for each session, and
present their paper project during one thematic session (this includes
writing an abstract beforehand and autonomously searching for as well as
analyzing historical sources).
- Dozent/in: Laura Meneghello