AMS 251T - Washington DC: Cultural and Political Spaces in America’s Capital

Course Units: 1

This course focuses on the ways Washington, DC residents, writers, politicians and critics have defined the nation’s capital, exploring the dichotomy between Washington as the “lived” city, with that as the nation’s public capital (and spectacle). The course examines the racial and class shifts over the last century in its residential space, its recent rapid gentrification, and the dramatic racial and class divide in both living space and working space. Moreover, the public space, such as presidential monuments, war memorials, federal museums, the White House, the Library of Congress, the Supreme Court, and the Mall are contentious political spaces as well as symbolic spaces for tourists viewing the “values” of the United States. CC: Does not get LCC credit; term-abroad course not outside the United States.