Topics in Cultural Heritage Informatics: Mapping Urban Destruction

What stories does rubble tell? This course investigates how demolitions have shaped the social and material lives of cities in a range of urban contexts. Course sections will follow the razing of singularly meaningful sites along with broad patterns of demolition in cities throughout the world, from Chicago to Paris and São  Paulo to Austin. Specific questions that will recur throughout the course include: How do demolitions change places and the meanings attached to them? Why do authorities bulldoze certain structures and not others? Where do dislocated residents go? How have demolitions contributed to uneven urban development, including through patterns of segregation, economic immobility, and inequality, across space and time?   Source materials will include historical maps, city plans, oral histories, and music that preserves razed spaces in popular memory.   Students will learn to use digital mapping tools to document, analyze, and visualize social and spatial change related to demolitions over time. They will also re/map and narrative the life and destruction a significant demolished space. No prior experience with mapping or programming is required; students interested in learning foundational mapping skills in a supportive and structured environment are welcome.