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GEO 5934(3)/HIS 6934(5)
MODERNITY, TIME, AND SPACE
Tuesdays, 2:00-4:30
BEL 317Dr. Barney Warf Dr. Nathan Stoltzfus
Office: BEL 323 Office: BEL 447644-8371 644-9529
[email protected] [email protected]
This course is designed as an experimental, interdisciplinary
seminar concerned withvarious dimensions of modernity. It seeks to
explore what it means to be modern.Modernity is simultaneously an
economic, political, cultural, and spatial phenomenon thatmarks a
dramatic departure from older, premodern worlds, as important to
human socialdevelopment as was the transition from hunting and
gathering to agriculture. The centralissues, questions, and
dilemmas we will confront include: What the origins of the
modernworld and how did it evolve? How was modernity constituted in
time and space? How
were peoples perceptions of themselves and society transformed?
What transformations,including mass movements (mass production and
consumption, total war and socialrevolution) and the production of
the individual, accompanied modernity and modernization?
an. 13: Introduction
an. 20:Taylor, Peter. 1999.Modernities: A Geohistorical
Interpretation.Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
an. 27:Berman, M. 1982.All that is Solid Melts into Air. New
York: Penguin Books.
Feb. 3, 10:Bauman, Zygman. 2000.Liquid Modernity. Malden, MA:
Blackwell
Feb. 17, 24:Kern, Stephen. 1983. The Culture of Time and Space
1880-1918. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
March 2, 16:Esksteins, Modris. 1989.Rites of Spring: The Great
War and the Birth of the Modern Age. New York: HoughtonMifflin.
March 9: spring break no class
March 23, 30:Bauman, Zygman. 1989.Modernity and the Holocaust.
New York: Polity Press.
April 6, 13:Therborn, Goran. 1995.European Modernity and Beyond:
The Trajectory of European Societies 1945-2000.LondoSage.
April 20:
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Friedland, Roger and Deirdre Boden, eds. 1994.NowHere: Space,
Time and Modernity.Berkeley: University ofCalifornia Press.
Chapters 1-5.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS and GRADE COMPOSITION:0% Consistent,
enthusiastic class participation
(poor participation is a sign you haven't done the
readings)Students will be asked to introduce a particular book or
reading.
0% Eight 3-page summaries of each assigned reading, due at the
beginning of the class whenthe book is discussed.
40% One paper falling within the broad theme of modernity (12-15
pages), due by April 6.HIS 6934 students will be asked to give a 10
minute presentation on their paper topic at thebeginning of class
starting Feb. 10.
Note: taking notes in class and on the readings is not a bad
idea; they may come in handy in the future.
