ARTH 201(F) American Landscape History (Same as Environmental Studies 201) (W)
A survey course stressing the visual attributes and historical geography of regional, vernacular (that is, ordinary or pervasive) American settings, with the goal of discerning a national style of spatial or landscape organization. Among the human-altered environments to be studied, from an evolutionary or diachronic perspective, are: forestlands, rangelands, croplands, outdoor recreational sites, mines and quarries; power and utilities; small towns, mill towns, central business districts, and suburbs; housing, industry, commerce, and institutional uses such as the American college campus; water, road, and rail corridors as examples of circulation nets. Given the course's breadth of topics and, by contrast, other courses (see ArtH 308 and 310 during this academic year) concentrating on specific land uses, a major objective in this survey will lie in discerning generic stylistic continuities and discontinuities, or changes, which the landscape activities or sites express.
One outdoors, afternoon meeting each week provides discussion opportunities in situ, and enables class members
to obtain a deeper or first-hand familiarity with a rural-urban gradient of representative land uses and occupants
of the Hoosic-Hudson watershed and Taconic upland region surrounding Williamstown, as well as practicums
in interviewing and field study methodologies.
Format: lecture/discussion. Requirements: weekly essays advancing the documentation of an individually-chosen landscape site or behavior, simultaneously with the wider textual and field context which the course itself provides. The first Friday in November there will be an obligatory all-day field session, pondering an urban-rural gradient from Troy, New York to Salem, New York.
No prerequisites. Enrollment limit: 22 (expected: 22). Open to first-year students. Preference to American Studies, Art, and Environmental Studies majors or intended majors.
Hour: SATTERTHWAITE