This Foundations in Critical Studies course will address the ways in which we understand and experience space. We will be looking at the different forces that shape cultural landscapes and the built environment and how various systems of power impact how spaces are experienced. We will be thinking about how the creation, management, and narratives around landscapes impact our perception.
We will be discussing historical formations of space as well as their contemporary consequences, and addressing themes including demographics, city planning, identity, culture, and how systems of power are enacted and contested through spatial arrangements. You will be engaging these topics through a variety of texts and mediums, and thinking about the concept of mapping space through engaging models of how people have made sense of space through visualizations. Throughout this course you will create your own “critical map” that will allow you to interrogate how we understand and interact with space.Foundations in Critical Studies introduces critical thinking skills essential to college-level work in the humanities and sciences. Students develop their critical capacities through close reading and active response to cultural texts and phenomena drawn from multiple disciplines and reflecting diverse perspectives on major themes or topics in contemporary life.

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