Elective course; 2 credits
Winter Term – 2024/25
Instructors
Course instructor: Katalin Szende, Professor, Department of Historical Studies, szendek@ceu.edu
Teaching assistant: Daria Ageeva, PhD candidate in Late Antique, Medieval and Early Modern Studies, ageeva_daria@phd.ceu.edu
Course Description
Cities and towns have gained an increasing importance in human history as central places organizing governance, economy and culture well beyond the numerical proportion of their inhabitants in any given society. This course offers an understanding of this settlement type in a historical perspective from Late Antiquity to the twenty-first century, through a historiographic overview, ten thematic classes and a thematic city walk. Class sessions and the readings will discuss aspects of social, economic and cultural urban dimensions from local, regional and global perspectives. The first classes of the course will analyse geographical location, spatial development, physical and social topography of cities and towns in the context of their natural environment. Then the focus will move to municipal governance and urban communities to commercial and industrial enterprises, public health, religion, and culture, and finish with a view on smart cities and the future of urbanism in view of digital nomadism.
The course is organized as a series of topical classes with readings selected in such a way as to familiarize the students with recent historiography. The course presents the key concepts, sources, and methodology of urban history through a set of examples. The overall aim is to develop a comprehensive and critical understanding of social, demographic and cultural developments and structures in Europe and beyond from the fourth until the twenty-first century through an urban lens. The global perspective will be strengthened by the participants’ choices who will be asked to select a city or town that they use as an example for each topic throughout the course.
- Instructor: Katalin Szende