Exercises

The following are short descriptions of the Assignments you will complete in class.

  • Neighborhood Ethnography: 
    • Students choose a neighborhood in Brooklyn and do a research project on it that includes some archival and ethnographic data. Presentations and papers possible. Can be a big or small project.
  • Media Scrapbook:
    • Students collect media scraps (art, advertisements, signage, detritus) in order to answer a question about inequality in the city. Students often collect scraps for their urban scrapbook about a topic they are interested and to present a part of their own urban experience. Papers/presentations optional.
  • Online forums and discussion boards:
    • Many professors use various types of online discussion boards or tools like Slack in order to manage communication with students. Instructors have had success with opening a Facebook page for their class and students can post and comment there. Other professors have used the feature in blackboard that organizes discussion threads. 
  • Quizzes:
    • These short quizzes will be assigned and turned in through Blackboard and will address themes from the material of the week. The Quizzes will include different types of questions including multiple choice, fill in the blank, short essay and true/false.
  • Podcasting
    • Semester long project: Students can make a 5-minute podcast episode about a topic of their choice: policing, gentrification, race and technology, gated communities, transportation, etc…
    • Resources: WBEZ has a website for a podcast toolkit. Students can use their phone and download audacity…which will also hopefully be on the lab and anthro computers. They can then upload one or two interviews along with their own thoughts and sounds.
    • Podcasts for reference:
      • The (sub)Urban podcast: The (sub)URBAN Podcast is based in Huntsville, Alabama. The (sub)URBAN Podcast provides listeners with hours of sometimes explicit entertainment. Our Hosts, Juice and Kim provide insight on growing up black and in the suburbs. Each week they discuss everything from Music, Politics, Religion, Racism and Sexism. Just two suburban kids discussing blackness in white spaces.
      • Invisible City: Examines the global conversation on 21st century city building and shares unique stories providing insight into the complexity of modern city living.
      • Planners Under the Influence: This is a podcast about becoming urban planners. Join Diego and Heather as they share their experiences studying Urban Planning and interview students, academics, and practitioners on what it’s like to become an urban planner. We believe Jan Gehl said it best: “A good city is like a good party.” So pick up a drink and let’s talk cities.
      • Isn’t That Spatial: The podcast dedicated to casual geography and the spatial component of whatever. ITS is hosted by Amanda King, an urban planner based in Columbus, Ohio.
      • Technopolis (city Lab): Hosted by urban innovation professor Molly Turner and startup advisor Jim Kapsis, Technopolis explores what needs to change for tech to help solve more problems than it creates.
      • There goes the neighborhood: Los Angeles is having an identity crisis. City officials tout new development and shiny commuter trains, while longtime residents are doing all they can to hang on to home.

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