Sample Syllabus: Historic Preservation in Diverse Communities
HISTORIC PRESERVATION IN DIVERSE COMMUNITIES
A. COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course provides an introduction to historic preservation, its development, and its impact in diverse communities. We will cover the field’s historical underpinnings and issues that affect contemporary practice. While generally thematic, discussions will also examine a series of case studies.
B. ASSIGNMENTS
- 10% Attendance, Participation, and Preparation
- 10% Group Blog Assignment: In a small group, identify a video, newspaper article, or image related to the assigned reading. You will be asked to share the source, identify the author’s argument, and relate them to key findings in the week’s reading. At the beginning of the class, you will lead the students through your group post and short discussion. Groups will be assigned at the beginning of the semester.
- 20% Midterm Exam: The exam will require key word identifications and short essays.
- 30% Memorandum: Drawing on any of the class themes, write a 5 page memorandum addressing best practices related to diversity and preservation within our community. We will peer workshop the memo in class and you will submit it to me on Week 8.
- 30% Final Exam: The exam will include key word identifications and short essays drawing from readings assigned throughout the course. In a final essay question, each student will be asked to analyze a contemporary local preservation issue and propose a solution based on class materials.
C. REQUIRED TEXTS
Course Reader
Hayden, Dolores. The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History. MIT Press, 1997.
Loukaitou-Sideris, Anastasia (ed.). “Theme Issue: Studying and Understanding Ethnic Landscapes.” Journal of Architecture and Planning Research. Volume 19, Number 4, Winter 2002.
D. READING SCHEDULE
WEEK ONE. INTRODUCTION
Introductions and course overview.
Jacobs, Jane. “Chapter 10: The Need for Aged Buildings.” The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Vintage Books Edition, 1992. Originally published New York: Random House, Inc., 1961.
Case Study. “This Place Matters.” National Trust for Historic Preservation. http://www.preservationnation.org/take-action/this-place-matters/.
WEEK TWO. The Power of Place
Loukaitou-Sideris, Anastasia. “Introduction: Studying and Understanding Ethnic Landscapes.” Journal of Architectural and Planning Research. Volume 19 Number 4, Winter 2002. 271-273
Hayden. “Part 1 Claiming Urban Landscapes as Public History.” The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History. MIT Press, 1997. 1-79.
WEEK THREE. Whitewashed Adobes
Suisman, Douglas. “Plaza Mexicana.” Places: A Quarterly Journal of Environmental Design. Volume 8 Number 3. Spring, 1993.
Kropp, Phoebe S. "Citizens of the Past? Olvera Street and the Construction of Race and Memory in 1930s Los Angeles." Radical
History Review. Vol. 81, 2001. Pp. 35-60.
Case Study: “Conversaciones to Launch a Latino/Hispanic Initiatives.” National Trust for
Historic Preservation. http://www.preservationnation.org/forum/library/public-articles/iconversacionesi-to.html.
WEEK FOUR. Ethnic Tourism
Cocks, Catherine. “Chapter ‘6 The Noble Spectator’: Historic Walking and Ethnic Slumming.” Doing the Town: The Rise of Urban Tourism in the United States, 1850-1915. University of California Press, 2001.
Craine, Kimber ed. A Position Paper on Cultural & Heritage Tourism in the United States. Washington, D.C.: President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, 2005.
WEEK FIVE. Preservation in Low-Income Communities
Rypkema, Donovan. “Chapter 10: Saving an Old Building.” The Economics of Rehabilitation: A Community Leader’s Guide. Washington, D.C.: National Trust for Historic Preservation, 2003.
Listokin, David and Listokin, Barbara. “Historic Preservation and Affordable Housing: Leveraging Old Resources for New
Opportunities. Housing Facts and Findings.” Fannie Lou Foundation, 2001.
Pader, Ellen. “Housing Occupancy Standards: Inscribing Ethnicity and Family Relations of the Land.” Journal of Architecture and Planning Research. Volume 19, Number 4, Winter 2002. 300-318.
WEEK SIX. Gentrification
Robin, Peggy. Saving the Neighborhood: You Can Fight Developers and Win! Rockville: Woodbine House, Inc., 1990.
Bures, Regina M., ed. “Historic Preservation, Gentrification, and Tourism: The Transformation Of Charleston, South Carolina.” Edited by Kevin Fox Gotham Critical Perspectives on Urban Redevelopment. Emerald Group Publishing, 2001. 195 209.
Smith, Neil. “Chapter 6 Market, State and Ideology: Society Hill. The New Urban Frontier: Gentrification and the Revanchist City. NY: Routledge, 1996. 116-135.
Case Study: Los Angeles Broadway District. "The Downtown Los Angeles Market Report and 2006 Demographic Survey of New Downtown Residents." Los Angeles: The Los Angeles Downtown Center Business Improvement District, 2007.
WEEK SEVEN. A Woman’s Movement?
Mayo, Edith. “Putting Women in Their Place: Methods and Sources for Including Women’s History in Museums and Historic
Sites.” Restoring Women’s History through Historic Preservation. John Hopkins University Press, 2003. 111-128.
Goodman, Jenifer B. “Best Practices for Saving Women’s Heritage Sites: Nonprofit Case Studies.” Restoring Women’s History through Historic Preservation. John Hopkins University Press, 2003. 214-229.
WEEK EIGHT. LGBT Heritage
Dubrow, Gail Lee. “Trails with Pink Triangles and Rainbow Flags: Improving the Preservation and Interpretation of Gay and
Lesbian Heritage.” Restoring Women’s History through Historic Preservation. John Hopkins University Press, 2003. 281-290.
Fellows, Will. “Cherishing Old New Orleans and Louisiana.” A Passion to Preserve: Gay Men as keepers of Culture. 217-229.
Broverman, Neal. “Boom Boom room Fight in Laguna Beach: Still On, Still Ugly. July 6 2010. http://la.curbed.com/archives/2010/07/boom_boom_room_fight_in_laguna_beach_still_on_still_ugly.php
Case Study: Laguna Beach Boom Boom Room.
WEEK NINE. “It Doesn’t Look Historic”
Dubrow, Gail Lee. “Deri Kuigi Wa Utareru or The Nail that Sticks Up Gets hit: The Architecture of Japanese American
Identity, 1885-1942.” Journal of Architecture and Planning Research. Volume 19, Number 4, Winter 2002. 319-333.
Krase, Jerome. “Navigating Ethnic Vernacular Landscapes Then and Now.” Journal of Architecture and Planning Research.
Volume 19, Number 4, Winter 2002. 319-333.
Muniz, Karina and Hartig, Anthea. “Este Lugar es Importante: Embracing Diverse Perspectives on Significance.” Forum Journal.
Volume 24 Number 3. Spring 2010. 41-46.
Case Study: Harada House
WEEK TEN. Preserving Without Buildings
Hayden, Dolores. “Chapter 7 Rediscovering an African American Homestead.” The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History. MIT Press, 1997. 168-187.
Birnbaum, Charles. NPS Preservation Brief 36: “Protecting Cultural Landscapes: Planning, Treatment and Management of
Historic Landscapes.” www.nps.gov/history/hps/tps/briefs/brief36.htm
Film: “Kokopilli and the Last Giants.” Inland Mexican Heritage, 2012. 30 minutes.
Film: Faubourg Treme The Untold Story of Black New Orleans, 2008. 56 minutes.
WEEK ELEVEN. Collaborative Work
Carpio, Genevieve, Luk, Sharon and Bush, Adam. “Building People’s Histories: Graduate Student Teaching and Undergraduate Education.” Journal of American History. March 2013.
Hayden, Dolores. “Chapter 8 Reinterpreting Latina History at the Embassy Auditorium,” “Chapter 9 Remembering Little Tokyo on First Street,” & “Chapter 10 Storytelling with the Shapes of Time.” The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History. MIT Press, 1997. 188-239.
WEEK TWELVE. Conclusion
Case Study: From Main Street to the Barrio: Route 66 Heritage and Latino Mobility