AMST 247
Cities, Suburbs, and Rural Places Spring 2024
Division II Difference, Power, and Equity
Cross-listed ENVI 257 / LATS 230
This is not the current course catalog

Class Details

Long associated with cities in the scholarly and popular imagination, immigrants have increasingly settled in U.S. suburbs. Through the lens of new destinations for im/migrants, this course introduces spatial methods, perspectives, and concepts to understand cities, suburbs, and rural places and the relationships between these various spaces. We ask how geographically specific forces and actors shape these trends, as well as the spatially uneven outcomes of complex processes like globalization. This interdisciplinary course highlights racial, legal, economic, political, environmental, social, and cultural dimensions of how transnational migrants become part of and create homes in new places. Through a range of textual materials (academic, technical, popular, visual), we explore why people migrate, the origin of the “illegal alien” figure, economic restructuring and local immigration policies, environmental justice, place-making and community development. Rooted in critical race geographies, case studies are often comparative across different racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. West, South, Midwest, and Northeast. We analyze how documentation status and perceptions of illegality affect the lived experiences of Latines. This course will be mostly discussion-based, with grading based on participation, short writing exercises, three assignments, a midterm examination, and a final exam.
The Class: Format: lecture; This is also a discussion course. While I will spend some time at the beginning of the class lecturing, most of the time will be spent in class discussions.
Limit: 25
Expected: 20
Class#: 3945
Grading: yes pass/fail option, yes fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: Class participation, weekly in-class writing, three 3-6 page essays, a midterm, and a final examination. All writing materials and exams are based on coursework.
Prerequisites: None
Enrollment Preferences: LATS concentrators or those intending to become LATS concentrators
Distributions: Division II Difference, Power, and Equity
Notes: This course is cross-listed and the prefixes carry the following divisional credit:
ENVI 257 Division II AMST 247 Division II LATS 230 Division II
DPE Notes: Students examine how race, gender, sexuallity, class, and documentation status also impact how immigrants 'transition' to new migration destinations. We consider how the exercise of unequal power affects migration, settlement, and place-making. Students analyze representations and demographic data to determine how people are portrayed and what their material conditions are.
Attributes: AMST Comp Studies in Race, Ethnicity, Diaspora
AMST Space and Place Electives
ENVI Humanities, Arts + Social Science Electives
LATS Core Electives

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