Critical Social Inquiry 0203 - The Politics of Place

Who decides which places are important for us to remember? How do we go about remembering them? And how do other places or other stories get pushed aside or silenced in the process? In this course we will explore how certain places and histories come to be important to us and our sense of local and national belonging. We will critically examine specific sites of national and local memory such as Plymouth Rock, Mt. Rushmore, and Historic Deerfield. We will examine the processes through which narratives of nationalism are created and distributed from contested histories and places. We explore some of the politics of national remembering and forgetting and the ways those politics impact alternative views of history. Note: this course may include a field trip.

Multiple Cultural Perspectives Power, Community and Social Justice Multiple Cultural Perspectives Students are expected to spend 6-8 hours weekly on work and preparation outside of class time.