First Year Writing Seminar: When L.A. Glowed

Dr. Peter Chesney is an urban cultural historian who has used Southern California as a case study in his research and publications. This course, "When L.A. Glowed," will bring students back to the moment that marked Los Angeles's emergence as the future of the global city. Rich with a dense mosaic of races, ethnicities, sexualities, and modes of gender expression, L.A.'s built environment appears to have fostered this differentiation - and reflected it! Chesney will walk students through these changes and show them numerous dimensions to this quintessentially cyberpunk city through readings from books and essays, group listening activities, viewings of films and music videos, and at least two fieldwork exercises.