Syllabus: Women & The City

Rebecca Burnett, University of Washington

How are gender identities linked to discourses about the city? How do gender identities and gender relations shape the social and material construction of different urban spaces, places, and landscapes; and vice versa? How do other social identities intersect with gender to produce varying experiences of different places, and even the same places and spaces? What sorts of changes have women (and other marginalized groups) brought about in cities? These are the sorts of questions that lie at the heart of this course. While the course has a nominal emphasis on women, there will be a strong focus on the intersectionality of gender, race, class, and other social markers and their role in influencing space, the political economy, and experiences in the city.