Informations du cours

 

This seminar runs in parallel with the lecture “Urban Societies in Time and Space.” While the lecture introduces key historical and thematic aspects of urban life, our focus here will be on developing the theoretical and analytical tools needed to study cities critically. We will examine how cities are shaped by classed, gendered, and visible or invisible boundaries; how distant forces such as financial decisions, border regimes, and wars intersect with more immediate modalities of regulation, including traffic control, the management of public space, and rent caps.

 

In exploring the historical trajectories of urban formations, we will also address their colonial and postcolonial dimensions, engaging with texts from postcolonial urban studies and critical geography. Finally, in parallel with the lecture’s focus on urban habitats, we will reflect on multispecies life and the more-than-human environments that make up the city.

 

The seminar aims to equip students with a refined theoretical vocabulary and a set of conceptual frameworks that can help them articulate their own research questions. It encourages students to connect theoretical readings with their individual projects and to use the seminar as a space for developing and testing their ideas.

The goal of the seminar is to enable students to develop and deepen their own conceptual questions and topics in relation to the lecture.

 

Requirements:
A close reading of all assigned texts is essential, as the seminar relies on collective discussion. Equally important is critical engagement and active participation. The course assessment depends on how you wish to take the seminar and can be completed either as part of the oral examination or through a written assignment. The seminar may also count as part of your elective coursework (Freie Wahl). As we will work closely with your own research interests, this seminar can also serve as a foundation for your term paper, or for your Master’s thesis.