This course introduces the subfield of urban anthropology through the lens of politics, protest, and collective action that claims a right to the city. It explores how urban life is the setting and substance for the production of political agency, how the city is a medium of political communication, and thus how it constitutes a repository of dynamic but unstable political possibilities. The course takes a performative approach to city-making, in which the urban—what it means, what it is—is continually brought into being through the actions and arguments of its denizens, from Ultra football fans and disenfranchised workers to favela dwellers and guerilla artists. In particular, we will explore how the urban sensorium (the sounds, smells, and sights of the city) is a site of social and political intervention.
The seminar will be in English as will be the readings. However, students are welcome to speak German in class as well as submit their course requirements in German.
- Kursverantwortliche/r: Dr. Andrew Gilbert (he/him)