SoSe2021: Seminar "Readings in Global Urban History"

Fridays, 11:00-12.30

Over the last two decades or so it has become increasingly clear that cities are localities that have been fundamentally shaped by the spatial flows of people and things, information and ideas. We thus need to understand them as translocal places historically conditioned by networks of empire, migration and the global economy. The topics addressed include social and racial inequality, ethnic identities, political activism and urban planning. The seminar will provide an introduction into this developing field of global urban history by focusing on recent scholarship which will be read and discussed collectively. Students will be required to present seminal monographic studies and write a book review.

Please enroll in the Moodle course!

9 April                      Introduction

16 April                    Cities in the global 19th century

23 April                    Colonial urbanism

30. April                   no session held (due to excursions)

7 May                       Urban inequality I

14 May                     Urban inequality II

21 May                     Migration and decolonization I

28 May                     Migration and decolonization II

4 June                      Urban renewal and its critics

11 June                    Urban renewal and its critics II 

18 June                    no session held

25 June                    Postindustrial cities

2 July                       Global cities

9 July                       Cities and global governance