Amsterdam: A Historical Introduction

Description

This course is an excellent opportunity to acquire knowledge about and insight in Urban History. The course has a spatial-ecological-historical focus. Key-words are social-economic and ecological history, architectural history, urban design, and heritage. How did a town develop and how can this be explained? What plans existed for city development and who decided about choices? What were and are characteristic buildings? Who migrated to the town and who lived where? How does a town relate to its natural environment like water bodies and to the surrounding countryside? How does a town organize its hygiene, like drinking water and green space? The course presents the urban history of Amsterdam from the Middle Ages until the early 21st century, but it does not include political history. This course is attended by students from many nationalities and contributes to your skills to operate in an international classroom. Course Objective: Your learning goals are: gaining basic knowledge (including concepts and theories) about urban history, in particular related to the spatial and ecological dimensions of urban history; applying urban history knowledge and insights to concrete case-studies, with the aid of texts, maps, concrete objects, and other visual materials; forming an opinion on issues such as heritage questions and communicating those to several types of readership. Assessment Information: 5 excursions or tutorial assignments (5x3%) 15% and a final exam (85%). The final written exam consists of 5 open questions related to the course book and the lectures and to the themes presented in class. You are asked to interpret texts, maps and other visual sources that have been discussed in class. Note: The exam is in October and the resit is in January. Teaching Methods: The course is organized in two sessions per week. The first one is a 2 hours lecture, both on the course book and on a special theme of the week, followed by time for discussion and questions. You prepare this by studying texts. The second one is a 2 hours excursion, focused on the special week theme. During and after this excursion you make an assignment aided by a tablet, provided by the VU Library (UBVU) and you submit that the day after. Some of these excursions are self-guided excursions. Presence at 80% of the sessions is mandatory. For your orientation, watch this film about a course excursion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qKz6uMUNDA.