Wikipedia talk:Education program archive/St. Peter's University/Contemporary Cities (Fall 2013)/Course description

The Contemporary City (UR-151) is an interdisciplinary course focusing primarily on urban life within the United States to provide students with a general introduction to urban studies. U.S. cities will be compared and contrasted to global cities—such as Berlin, Oslo, Cape Town, and Cairo—to unpack the geographical, technological, political, economic, and historical development of contemporary cities. We will explore ways in which cities shape, and are shaped by, the lived realities of different social groups. Specifically, we will examine social problems affecting cities such as: housing, gentrification, privatization, policing, information access, and economic inequality. Emphasis will be placed on relating course readings and lectures to students’ own experiences and observations as urban dwellers. To this end, Jersey City will serve as a ‘laboratory’ where we have the opportunity to develop and expand our knowledge as well as better understand the lived realities of the city and its inhabitants.

The class--as a group--will be responsible for further developing aspects of the Jersey City Wikipedia entry. The Wikipedia Education Program will facilitate an in-class workshop to help students develop capacities for analyzing and improving Wikipedia entries. The course of action, distribution of responsibility, and project timeline for this group project will be collectively negotiated during class. All students will be graded as a group, meaning all participants will receive the same grade for this project.

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