The Global City (378-0-1)

Topic

Mexico City

Instructors

Jesús Escobar
847/467-0854
Kresge 4321
Office Hours: W 3-4pm; R 3:30-4:30pm

Meeting Info

Kresge Centennial Hall 2-435: Tues, Thurs 11:00AM - 12:20PM

Overview of class

This course will explore seven centuries of architecture and urbanism in North America's largest city. First founded in 1325 as Tenochtitlan, the city served as the ceremonial and political center for an expanding Mexica, or Aztec, empire that commanded vast territories across Mesoamerica. Two centuries later, following the Spanish invasion and conquest of the Mexica capital, Tenochtitlan was transformed into a new kind of center and renamed Ciudad de México. As capital of the Spanish Viceroyalty of New Spain—a realm that encompassed modern-day Mexico, parts of the Central America and the USA, as well as islands in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean—Mexico City became the crossroads for global commerce and exchange connecting four continents. Nineteenth-century independence from Spain and early twentieth-century revolution led to Mexico City's further physical as well as cultural transformation into the megalopolis of 22 million inhabitants we can experience today. This course will trace how the ecology and terrain of this remarkable place has evolved over time. We will consider everyday buildings and public spaces as well as monuments, both surviving and lost. From streets, parks, and boulevards to stepped pyramids, basilica-plan churches, and sports complexes designed for the Olympic Games, the course explores architecture and urbanism as a reflection of Mexico City's complex history from a global vantage.

Required: Attendance and participation, including contributing to class discussion and writing (and sometimes sketching) weekly responses to readings and/or visual prompts. Participants should plan on one weekend outing (Friday or Saturday TBD) in Chicago.

Class Attributes

Historical Studies Foundational Discipline
Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline
Historical Studies Distro Area
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area

Enrollment Requirements

Enrollment Requirements: Pre-registration -- Reserved for Art History majors and minors, & Art Theory majors and minors.