Scribner Seminar Program
Course Description
Cities of Dreadful Delight: The Latin American Urban Experience
Instructor(s): Jordana Dym, History
This course explores the role of the city in the development of Latin American societies
and cultures from pre-colonial times to the present. Latin America's capital cities,
in particular, encapsulate a country's political, industrial, financial, commercial,
entertainment, intellectual, cultural, and religious identities. On their streets,
and in their public and private buildings which have been built and rebuilt for hundreds
of years, rich and poor, native and immigrant, men, women and children have worked,
celebrated, rioted, studied, created, voted, fought, thrived, suffered, loved, hated,
demonstrated and lived. The course will focus on Mexico City (Mexico) and Buenos Aires
(Argentina) as the case studies in which to read the evidence of the historical, political,
social, economic, and cultural life in continental Spanish America, since many characteristics
of their urban experience are shared by other cities throughout the continent. Supplementary
materials from port cities like Havana (Cuba) and from Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia
(Brazil), which began as Portuguese colonies, will provide some contrast, and student
projects on other key urban centers will conclude the course.
Course Offered
