Course Offerings in Architecture and Visual Culture: Fall 2006 Semester

Center for Environmental Sciences and Technology Management

AGOG 102 Place, Space, and Landscapes, Professor Roger W. Stump, Dept of Geography and Planning.
Introduction to the main fields of human geography, (including population, cultural, economic, urban, and political geography), focusing on the disciplinary themes of place, space and landscape. The themes are applied at a variety of scales, from local to global.

AGOG 125 The American City, Professor John Pipkin, Dept of Geography and Planning.
Reviews social, economic, political and physical characteristics of American cities resulting from key events (e.g. industrial development, European immigration, suburbanization, the Civil Rights Movement). Examines the relationship between these events and current urban issues. Specific topics include: de-industrialization, women in the workforce, homelessness, poverty, environmental degradation, health care, and AIDS. Considers the influence of race, ethnicity, class and gender factors on the character of cities.

ACAS 201H Closer Looks: Architecture and Visual Culture, Professor Mary Valentis, Director, Center for Humanities, Arts, and TechnoScience (CHATS).
This course will serve as an introduction to the central theories, practices, and history of visual culture, the built environment, and spectatorship. The aim here is not to impose ways of seeing on anyone, but to equip the student with the fundamental ideas and multilayered approaches to visual analysis and critical reading that have served the interpreters of the word so well. The course includes both theory and practice and is divided into five general subject areas, although most of the lectures and discussions will combine both the ideological frameworks for reading visual culture as well as employing practical examples.

AGOG 225 World Cities, Professor Christopher Smith, Dept. of Geography and Planning.
Introduction to the geography of cities around the world and to the role of cities in the world system. Covers: origins and spread of urbanism in different cultural settings; levels of urbanization in space and time; urban form and land-use; rural-urban interaction; city systems and megacities; distinctive features of contemporary American cities

AARH 406/Cross Listed with ACLA 406 Roman Architecture and Town Planning, Professor Michael Werner, Dept. of Art.
The development of Roman public and private architecture, with emphasis on its urban setting and function, and the evolution of Roman towns in Italy and the Empire from the early Republic to the time of the emperor Constantine. Prerequisite(s): A Cla 208 or A Cla 208 or A Cla 209 or A Arh 170.

AENG 413 Urban Literature: From the Shining City on a Hill to the City as Hell, Professor Carolyn Yalkut, Dept. of English.
Students will examine developing and contending concepts of the city in American culture from the colonial era to the present, as manifest in fiction, essays, sermons, poetry, and film. Readings will be drawn from Benjamin Franklin, Henry Adams, Walt Whitman, Edith Wharton, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Carlos Williams, Nathaniel West, Frank O’Hara, and the Nuyorican poets, among others.

AJRL 475 Writing Journalism about Historic Architecture and Preservation, Professor Nancy Roberts, Department of Communication and Journalism Program.
What do upstate New York’s Greek Revival farmhouses, Albany’s brick rowhouses, Saratoga’s Victorian mansions and modest cottages, Troy’s old mills, and even the starkly modern University at Albany campus have in common? This class, a workshop, will introduce you to the rich lode of historic architecture and preservation activities in the Capital Region as a subject for in-depth journalism. You will develop both background knowledge of historic architecture and preservation and an eye for the best way to tell the story. Field trips, weekly assignments, and critiques.

AGOG 480 Advanced Urban Planning, Professor Christopher Smith, Dept. of Geography and Planning.
Explores some of the theoretical debates and empirical research conducted by geographers and planners interested in the contemporary city. Adopts a political/economy approach to the investigation of social problems currently pervasive in the capitalist city, including inner city poverty and the underclass, homelessness, gender-related issues, racial segregation; and crime problems. Prerequisite(s): A Gog 102Z or 102 or A Gog 210 or A Gog 220.