SO/CU 370 - Urban Identities in Contemporary Europe

This course aims at analyzing shifts in modern urban identity formations in European urban spaces through the lenses of memory politics and migration. We will delineate national, sub and supra-national identities in their historical and current development, look into the re-structuring of national narratives after 11/9 1989 and 9/11 2001 as well as under recent political tensions: the new wave of populism and the aftermath of the refugee crisis. We will analyze the ongoing public discourses on European integration, the risks of disintegration and detect hybrid spaces related to identity formation between geography, ethnicity, race, religion, class, and gender. The focus of empirical reflection and research literature will be on the European city with special references to Berlin, Paris, Istanbul, and Warsaw.