Learning Outcomes:
At the end of this module, it is expected that students will have acquired the following:
1. An advanced knowledge of urban history, of the processes which have driven urban creation and development since the middle ages
2. A critical awareness of the approaches which scholars across a range of Humanities disciplines have taken to the study of urban places
3. An ability to deploy, or to evaluate the benefits of deploying, different approaches to the study of urban places
4. An advanced knowledge of international policies and recommendations for the preservation of urban heritages, and an ability to critique their efficacies and ideological underpinnings.
Indicative Module Content:
The module has three components.
1. Urban history, middle ages to present. There will be a general survey, with detailed case-studies of individual cities or groups of cities: medieval walled cities; Hanseatic League cities, medieval Saharan/sub-Saharan cities; European colonial cities in the Americas; modern American cities (Chicago, Detroit, LA). Dublin is a good laboratory for exploring the matters of urban history and heritage, and will be studied using field trips.
2. Methodologies. The module will cover urban archaeological praxis, Town Plan Analysis, the Chicago and LA Schools of urbanism.
3. Urban heritage. The module will use UNESCO's Historic Urban Landscapes policy as a point of departure for considering the challenges of identifying and preserving both tangible and intangible urban heritages.