Postcolonial Cities

Course Description

Summary

This course examines how cities in the Global South—and in some cases the Global North—are shaped by colonial histories, enduring power relations, and ongoing struggles over urban identity, citizenship, and development. It asks how past and present structures of power continue to shape urban space, and how cities negotiate transformation, inequality, and belonging.

The course is interdisciplinary, drawing on urban studies, economic history, economic geography, postcolonial literature, sociology, and geography. Grounded in economic reasoning but broadly transdisciplinary, it explores how urban forms and experiences are produced through historical processes, institutional structures, and shifting political economies.

Rather than treating cities as static objects, the course approaches them as evolving spaces where history, power, and identity intersect, and where competing visions of modernity and development are continuously produced and contested.

This course has no prerequisites. All students, regardless of year, are welcome.

Course Requirements:

The course invites you to engage with your peers in a spirit of mutual appreciation, collaboration, and adventure. It is built around three core commitments: (a) active engagement with assigned readings through consistent class participation, (b) completion of written assignments, and (c) collaborative work, including group presentations.

Each class session depends on your preparation. You are expected to engage carefully with the readings in advance and contribute thoughtfully to discussion. Attendance is essential, as readings, discussion, and written work together form an integrated learning process.