Topic outline

  • ARK-E2010     Interplay of Cultures Research and Theory D

    autumn 2020

     

     

    GENERAL COURSE INFO


    Welcome to the Interplay of Cultures Research and Theory seminar course!

    This course will give you an overview of the current discourse on the thematic areas of global sustainability and development in the world majority context – or Global South – in countries outside Europe. We will be focusing on the dilemma of sustainable urban and societal development from the environmental and cultural perspectives, through reading, writing and discussion.

    The course will run on Monday afternoons, from 13:15 to 17. It will take place virtually in zoom space 

    https://aalto.zoom.us/j/66224821827   (Meeting ID: 662 2482 1827)

    hosted by prof. Saija Hollmén and architect Taru Niskanen.

     

    Please NOTE: The first session is on Monday, Sept 14, 2020.  

    On Monday September 14, we will go throught general info, other practicalities and divide you on groups as well as we will have first Article discussion -session (10-20 mins presentation by Taru Niskanen).

    To prepare for the first session, you are requested to complete a PRE-ASSIGNMENT:

    1.   read the following article: Watson, V. "African Urban Fantasies: Dreams Or Nightmares?" Environment and Urbanization 26, no. 1 (2014): 215-231.  (found in MyCourses under Pre-assignment)

          2. prepare at least 3 discussion points of the reading, reflecting the perspective of the writer, her arguments and conclusions, as well as your own response and impressions of these. 

     

    The primary working methods of the course are reading and discussion. For each seminar session, you will be requested to read two separate articles, which are indicated in the course schedule (presented on the first session on Sept 14). Everyone will read the articles assigned for the session.

    Each one of you will be asked to choose one of the predefined readings for closer scrutiny and prepare a 10-20 min presentation of it. You can also choose to do this in pairs, in which case you will be requested to complete two presentations.

    On Sept 14, you will also be (randomly) divided in groups of 5-6 students. This will be your reference group for the entire course, since each of you in the same group will be requested to prepare discussion points of the article chosen by one of your group members, as in the pre-assignment:

    -       prepare at least 3 discussion points of the reading, reflecting the perspective of the writer(s), their arguments and conclusions, as well as your own response and impressions of these.

     

     

    The presenter of a reading assignment will act as a ‘host’ of the session (two sessions each Monday), chairing and facilitating the discussion. The participation of the group members of the ‘host’ / presenter is thus crucial, to generate genuine and diverse discussion on the topic at hand.

    Attendance in the sessions, presentations and contributions on the discussions, will give you 5 cr. In addition, you are asked to write 1 - 3 reflection essays (if you write 3 reflection essays they should be 1-2 pages each / 2000-4000 characters with spaces. You can choose to write 1, 2 or 3 reflection essays and the total number of characters are min 6000 and max 12 000) on your chosen thematic areas. These will give you 1 additional credit, to complete the 6 credits altogether.

    In case you wish to withdraw your registration, please do so in Weboodi by Monday Sept 7, 2020, to leave room for others and help the course scheduling. Thank you!

     

    See you in zoom on Monday, Sept 14 at 13:15!

    https://aalto.zoom.us/j/66224821827

     


     

    Any questions? contact:  saija.hollmen@aalto.fi