The First-Year Program
LSP 111: Explore Chicago
Autumn Quarter 2014
Course
47th Street Bronzeville:
From the Great
Migration to
Re-Gentrification
Appreciating Beauty in
the City
Arab Chicago
firstyr@depaul.edu
UPDATED 5/19/2014
Faculty
Description
Bayo Ojikutu
English
On Chicago’s South Side, the 47th Street thoroughfare and the neighborhoods it concourses between Lake
Michigan and the Dan Ryan Expressway go by a slew of historic euphemisms: the Black Belt, Kenwood,
Bronzeville, Grand Boulevard, Blues Mecca, and the Strip. Lyrical tags coined and hummed by bluesmen,
preachers, proletariats, panderers, and real estate developers. Ostentatious tags contrived by reverse carpetbaggers
on the take, come to Chicago’s South Side in search of the Promised Land and all such a sacrosanct notion entails
in the migrant imagination: freedom, hope, God, truth, survival, acclimation and at the very end of their trek,
opportunity. We will engage 47th Street as a historic landing place for Black Americans migrating from the U.S.
South. We will address that which so differentiates and complicates these three Chicago miles: its blue rhythms, its
bourgeois pretensions, its parochial sensibilities, and its imposed yet embraced (and fiercely protected)
demographic homogeny. In so doing, we will traipse through a place once so self-sustained, one which remains
palpably insulated from the rest of the Chicago cultural landscape; a 47th Street that even in its raging blue irony,
quite acutely reflects its Southern lineage, its urban industrial locus, and its American heritage.
Elizabeth Millán
Brusslan
Philosophy
In this course, we will visit several important landmarks and discuss their aesthetic value. We shall use the city as
our text and consider the city of Chicago as a kind of work of art. Since to fully appreciate anything at all, it is
necessary to know something about its history and genesis, we will spend some time studying the history of
Chicago, with a focus on the people and events behind the current layout of the city. In addition to introducing you
to the city, this course will also serve as an introduction to philosophy, in particular to the branch of philosophy
that deals with issues concerning beauty, that is, aesthetics. We might all agree that the view of the Chicago skyline
from Buckingham Fountain or the view of the river from Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive is beautiful, but why
do we agree? What makes a given thing or collection of things beautiful? Is a more diverse city a more beautiful
city? Is a more beautiful city a more valuable city? In this course we shall explore such questions as we explore the
city of Chicago.
John Karam
Latin American &
Latino Studies
Arab Americans number more than 150,000 today in the Chicagoland region. Tracing their origins to more than
twenty countries in the Arab world, immigrants and descendents maintain hundreds of community centers,
religious congregations, professional associations, and eating establishments, reflecting and shaping contemporary
Chicago. Grounded in literary studies, anthropology, history, media studies, and sociology, this course will examine
the range of Arab American identities and identifications in the twentieth century. By exploring topics such as
immigration, ethnicity, race, religion, gender, homeland and exile, US American foreign policy, as well as popular
culture, students will be introduced to various contours of the Arab experience and community in Chicago and the
United States. Authors to be read include the award-winning novelist, Diana Abu-Jaber; the artist, activist, and Def
Poetry Jam star, Suheir Hammad; as well as local writer, reporter, and comedian, Ray Hanania.
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Michael Roberts
College of Science &
Health
Rock ’n roll, reggae, funk, R&B, hip hop, and rap would not be what they are, notwithstanding the possibility of
nonexistence, without their foundation: the blues. Affectionately known as the blues capital of the world,” Chicago
has one of the richest blues cultures in the world. As a product of the Great Migration, African-American blues
players from Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas flooded to Chicago for work and to perfect their craft. The austere
urban environment added a new dimension to their playing style: a rougher, faster, more powerful sound than what
was played in their delta home. This course will provide students with the opportunity to explore the city through
its blues culture. We will also examine the city’s history, geography, economy, politics, identity, social interactions,
and cultural relations.
Linda Kahn
Theatre
Diversity has strong presence in the dance community in Chicago. Students will understand the city of Chicago
through the study of this rich diversity in various neighborhoods with excursions to Hubbard Street Dance Chicago
downtown, Chicago Moving Company in Roscoe Village, Hromovytsia Dance Ensemble in Ukrainian Village and
Chicago Folk Dance in Hyde Park. We will also tour the longstanding 1889 Auditorium Theater and the 1910
Hamlin Field House Theater to appreciate these Chicago historical institutions. Students will interact with culturally
diverse neighborhood audiences, ethnic group members and Alejandro Cerrudo. who choreographed Hubbard
Street’s “A Thousand Pieces” inspired by a Chicago treasure Chagall’s “Windows” and Melissa Thodos who
created a Chicago award-winning story ballet “The White City” about the 1893 World Columbian Exposition.
Susana Martinez
Modern Languages
This course explores the Latino communities of Chicago by taking an interdisciplinary approach to literature and
popular culture. We will explore the important presence and contributions of Latinos in the social, cultural,
economic, and political development of Chicago. We will study issues of cultural identity, language, gender roles,
and sexuality in the novels, poetry, essays, and short stories of such noted Latina writers as Sandra Cisneros, Ana
Castillo, and Achy Obejas. We will learn about the similarities and differences among Chicago’s Mexican, Puerto
Rican, and Central American communities.
Chicago Memoirs
Jan Hickey
English
This course will focus on a child’s perspective of growing up in the city as told in their memoirs by people who
actually did grow up in Chicago. Students will be able to get an insider’s view of Chicago as a city of distinct
neighborhoods and how the cultural forces in those neighborhoods shaped the people who emerged from them.
We will focus on the remembrances of authors from three ethnic groups: African American, Jewish, and Irish; and
research and visit neighborhoods that were once home to these groups. This focus will naturally lead to a
discussion of the following questions: Do children have similar experiences today? If they are different, what forces
resulted in those differences? Are those influences – historical, geographical, economical – peculiar to Chicago?
What significance for Chicago’s future do these similarities/differences hold? Because the primary reading material
for the course will be memoirs, we will also be examining the characteristics of this literary genre and how it may
shape a reader’s response to the material. The memoirs will provide reflections on the rich ethnic heritage that, in
some ways, is unique to Chicago and offer students an opportunity to examine their own perceptions of different
neighborhoods in the light of reality. Students will also read selections from other literary genres written by people
who grew up in the same neighborhood, allowing them to see how one either compliments or contradicts the
other.
Chicago Politics:
Bosses & Reformers
Craig Sautter
School for New
Learning
Forget the Cubs. Forget the Sox. Forget the Bears, Bulls, Blackhawks. Politics is Chicago’s #1 spectator sport.
That’s because politics in Chicago touches almost all aspects of city life from trash collection to social services and
taxes. Chicago’s politicians are often flamboyant although sometimes corruptible figures. (Since 1972, 28 aldermen
have gone to prison.) They both delight and enrage voters and are constant “front page” news. This course will
Chicago Blues
Chicago Dancing
Chicago Latino Writers
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introduce “Explore Chicago” students to Chicago’s political institutions: City Hall, its system of 50 wards, current
aldermen and women, its mayor, its elections, and its raucous history of scandals and reform movements. Students
also will debate contemporary political/social issues which come before the mayor and city council during the
Autumn Quarter. And they will explore the exploits of some of Chicago’s most memorable mayors and political
“bosses” from Long John Wentworth, who guided the city during the civil war and Carter Harrison I, who presided
over the 1893 Columbian Exposition before his assassination to Chicago’s newest mayor, Rahm Emanuel. They
will also meet some of its most famous aldermen, such as “Hinky Dink” Kenna and “Bathhouse” John Coughlin,
“Lords of the Levee,” the old First Ward, to current office holders.
Chicago Radio
The Chicago
Renaissance in
Literature & Art
Chicago’s Architecture
Chicago’s Black
Cultural Renaissance
Scott Vyverman
Communication
Chicago has a rich and distinguished place in the history of American broadcasting. From the historic live account
of the Hindenburg Disaster by WLS reporter Herb Morrison to the Amos ’n Andy program, Chicago has played a
major role in the evolution of both radio and television. Many radio and television programs originated in Chicago
making Chicago’s broadcasting past and present worth the examination. Students will have the opportunity to visit
Chicago radio and television stations and also the Museum of Broadcasting. In addition to exploring the current
state of Chicago broadcasting, students will also have the opportunity to learn more about the golden eras of radio
and television, including Chicago’s place in the evolution of rock and roll and Top 40 radio.
Keith Mikos
English
The Chicago Renaissance refers to a period of intense literary and artistic production following the Great Fire of
1871. Authors such as Theodore Dreiser, Carl Sandburg, Upton Sinclair, Sherwin Anderson, and Lorraine
Hansberry, and artists like Archibald Motley, Jr., Ivan Albright, and Richard Haas (along with many others) either
helped to shape or were inspired by a unique, gritty, realist depiction of the “the city of big shoulders.” This course
will examine a few of these important Chicago-based authors and artists. We will read, view and discuss a broad
range of artistic forms—fiction, drama, poetry, painting, sculpture—to gain a deeper understanding of how
Chicago has been artistically portrayed. More importantly, we will walk the city that inspired these artists, traveling
in their footsteps to consider some of the locations that were important to them, and visiting a number of
landmark institutions important for Chicago artists.
Joseph Socki
History of Art &
Architecture
This course is about learning to understand and appreciate Chicago’s architecture—the techniques and styles in
which buildings are made, their functions and how they are a part of the city’s history. To learn these things we take
walking tours each week, look at buildings first hand and talk with experts. We examine the lives and works of
America’s most famous architects and visit many of Chicago's neighborhoods. We take a trip to Oak Park, tour
several of the city’s most important architectural monuments, and give all our field experiences depth by reading
and discussing issues such as how and why architects design buildings, and how the buildings they design affect
people.
Amor Kohli
African & Black
Diaspora Studies
Although the explosion of new African American artistic creativity that was centered in Harlem has had the lion’s
share of the press, as it was winding down there was a comparable flowering of black cultural activity in Chicago
that began during the 1930s. As Chicago’s black population soared in the early part of the 20th century due to the
“Great Migration” of blacks from the South, there arose with it a powerful body of cultural work in literature,
music, and dance that reflected the formation of the new community that would become known as “ Bronzeville.”
The upheavals that would coincide with the growth of black Chicago – labor struggles, racial unrest, the Great
Depression, World War 2, crumbling social conditions – would all have a lasting effect on this cultural
development. Drawing on new innovations in culture and in social science, this period from the 1930s to the 1960s
is an important chapter in the history of Black Chicago.
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Michael O’Toole
Music
This course introduces students to the diverse musical offerings in the Chicago metropolitan area. Students will
learn about the wide variety of music- and arts-related activities across many genres and musical styles. In addition
to regular excursions to music venues throughout the quarter, class discussions will focus on topics central to
understanding Chicago’s music scene in both its historical and contemporary contexts. Topics will focus on the
relevance of the music industry as it relates to musicians, industry professionals, educators, and patrons; including
fandom, race, gender, historical changes, music criticism, and current industry developments. Genres will span the
diversity of the Chicago music community, including blues, folk, hip-hop, jazz, musical theatre, opera, rock,
Western art and classical music, and various music of the world. Sessions will include lectures, open classroom
discussion, and guest speakers.
Chicago’s Natural &
Built Environments
Christine Skolnik
Writing, Rhetoric &
Discourse
This course examines the history of Chicago architecture within the context of the region’s natural environment.
While all architecture must address context to some extent, various periods and schools of architecture are more or
less engaged with the environment. The late nineteenth-century “Chicago School,” for example, was both
pragmatically oriented and sensitive to bio-regional elements. Frank Lloyd Wright’s residential architecture was
also keenly interested and invested in the relationship between man, architecture, and nature, while the
“Modernism” of Mies van der Rohe expressed more abstract concepts of space and man’s relationship to the world
beyond the “glass curtain.” A yearning for regional identity and a connection with nature is still evident in
Chicagoans’ obsession with architecture, urban aesthetics, and emerging “green” values. Is this focus on striking
buildings, beautiful landscaping, and preservation merely a consolation for city dwellers’ sense of loss or
estrangement from nature? Or does the focus on urban renewal, the environment, and “quality of life” represent
the persistence of regional and bio-regional sensibility, even in such a diverse and densely populated city as
Chicago? To what extent do Chicagoans still value the idea or ideal of communing with nature? Does our
obsession with preservation reflect a loss of physical connection to the natural environment, or hope for a more
engaged future? To what extent has the built environment become the new “bio-regional” environment and
identity? And, finally, can sustainable architecture serve to reconnect us with the natural world?
Chicago’s Spoken Word
Performers
Stephanie Howell
Communication
This class is designed as an introduction to Chicago’s exciting spoken word performance scene. You will attend
spoken works/word performances representing a variety of styles, cultures, and venues. By studying the stylistic
and cultural diversity of Chicago’s spoken works/word community, students will learn more about the rich
community life of DePaul and the city at large.
Natalie Tomlin
Writing, Rhetoric, &
Discourse
Recently, in response to mounting youth violence in Chicago, hip hop mogul and yoga proponent Russell Simmons
called out to the mayor in a Huffington Post interview: “Rahm Emanuel, wherever you are, I'm coming for you and
you're going to put meditation in schools in Chicago.” As urban centers like Chicago struggle to curb violence and
provide all citizens with access to healthcare, a deeper examination of the Chicago yoga community reveals both a
fertile ground for possibilities and a microcosm of complex challenges facing the well-being of all Chicagoans. With
the aim of exploring larger theories about the future of yoga as an agent of urban renewal and change, this course
will critically examine how yoga practitioners, teachers, studios and community-based organizations throughout the
city interact, form communities, and interpret the ancient practice of yoga. As part of our analysis, we will visit and
practice in studios that represent a spectrum of yoga experiences. After providing a basic introduction to yoga as a
principled and traditional practice, the course will focus on the socio-political implications of yoga’s expansion
within the city of Chicago. As we uncover specific challenges to the city’s yoga community, such as a need for
inclusion and selfless service, we will grapple with larger, crucial questions facing the city, country and world as a
whole.
Chicago’s Music Scene
Chicago’s Yoga
Community
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Contemporary Art in
Chicago
Crime, Business, and
Politics in Chicago
Digital Cinema in
Chicago
The Digital Divide
Mary Jane Duffy
Art, Media & Design
Chicago’s visual art scene is varied and vibrant. The Hairy Who, Nonplussed Some, and False Image were self-titled
groups of painters and sculptors who gained national recognition during the ’60s for their distorted figures, bright
colors and irreverent attitudes. Since then art in Chicago has continued to develop and expand into an
internationally recognized art community. This class will focus on Chicago art from the 1940s to the present: its
major artists, influences, collectors, critics, and institutions. We will study the influence of art history, geography,
politics and cultural movements on the development of a Chicago style. Students will explore Chicago art through
lectures, readings, discussions, and field trips to some major museums, galleries, public and private collections with
a focus on painting and sculpture by local artists.
Noel Barker
Sociology
Getting money and power in Chicago – What are the rules of the game and how have paths to success changed?
What becomes of those left behind in the scramble? Quite a tale has been told in Chicago. We will be talking
about a terrorist bombing for which innocent people were executed. How the Field, McCormick, and Pullman
fortunes were created in struggles against their workers. May Day became the day of international working class
solidarity but was forgotten in the city that founded it. Chicago’s ethnic diversity was fought by racist mayor Levi
Boone. Chicago is the place where even the World Series was fixed. Nowadays airport contracts are more
lucrative than brothel payoffs. Nelson called it a hustler’s town. Mike Royko said the official motto of “Urbs in
Horto” (City in a Garden) should be replaced by “Ubi Est Mea?” (Where’s Mine?) Hip-hop calls it “getting paid.”
We learn how Chicago does it.
Gary Novak
Computing & Digital
Media
Digital Cinema in Chicago exposes students to the world of digital cinema production. Students are introduced to
the production of feature films, commercials, television shows, animation, and gaming. Students see what goes on
behind the scenes and meet the individuals that create these works of art. Students visit movie sets, production
studios, post-production and animation houses, and computer gaming companies. By the end of the ten weeks,
students have a better understanding of what goes into the creation of the various forms of digital cinema. The
course combines classroom lectures and discussions with field experiences.
Terry Steinbach
Computing & Digital
Media
This course explores the social issue that refers to access to Information and Communications Technology (ICT).
Initially this digital split was defined as access to the Internet (late 1990s) and centered on racial and socioeconomic differences. Today, we’re looking at a different kind of divide. Access has increased through the use of
smartphones, but there are large differences in quality of connection, affordable cost, and intent (entertainment or
empowerment). We’ll also look at the difficulties that Americans with disabilities face. We will visit organizations in
a multiple neighborhoods to see how the City of Chicago is trying to bridge the divide.
Note: Open only to students participating in the CDM learning community.
Documenting Maxwell
Street & Pilsen
Janelle Walker
First-Year Program
The word documentary comes from the Latin docere, which means “to teach.” In the early 20th century, this term
came to describe an objective form of storytelling using the artificial memories of photography, film or recorded
sound. Some examples? John Thomson’s Asian travelogues, Hell’s Kitchen photographs of “muckraker” Jacob
Riis, filmmaker Robert Flaherty’s Nanook, or a modern-day PBS series by Ken Burns… all speak powerfully about
the marriage of the image and word. The camera and sound recorder bear faithful witness to culture, place and
individual. In many ways they are the most perfect of witnesses. They know nothing but remember everything.
The camera cannot lie. People can lie with cameras but this fact should not negate the photograph’s potential for
recording (and teaching) truth. In class you will learn about the neighborhood’s past and present, viewing examples
of others who have used the camera and words to document its cultures. General assumptions and questions will
be identified. Informed by in class discussion and readings, students will form working groups and plan a general
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“shooting scripts.” Equipped with disposable cameras (the faithful witness), with tape recorders, and with notebooks, we will gather visual, aural and oral evidence (interviews) on the Market and adjoining neighborhoods today.
Exploring the
Renaissance in Chicago
France & the FrenchSpeaking World in
Chicago
Haunted Chicago: The
Ghost Story as Oral &
Written Narrative
Healthcare in Chicago
Paula McQuade
English
Pascale Kichler
Modern Languages
Joyce Bean
Writing, Rhetoric, &
Discourse
Phil Funk
Biological Sciences
In this course, we will use the considerable resources of Chicago—its museums, architecture, musical societies and
theaters—to deepen our understanding of the early modern period. The course will be divided into four units:
Renaissance Art, drama, music, and architecture. In our unit on Renaissance painting, we will use the Art Institute’s
considerable resources; when we study Renaissance theater, we will attend performance of a Renaissance play by a
Chicago theater company. We will explore Renaissance music by attending a concert of early music and we will
complement our study of Renaissance architecture by exploring the use of Roman Renaissance architecture by
Chicago eastern European immigrants when building Chicago churches. Throughout, we will ask such questions as
the following: How is the early modern period central to Chicago’s identity as a world-class city? Why did the
“founders” of Chicago’s arts and cultural community actively seek out the resources and culture of the early
modern period? What are the “uses” of the European Renaissance to Chicago?
This course studies the impact of France and the French-speaking world on Chicago. It begins with the city’s
foundation as Fort Chicago by French explorers in the seventeenth century, moves on to its permanent settlement
by Jean Baptiste Pointe de Sable, examines how France served as the city’s cultural model for the late nineteenth
and early twentieth-century (e.g., for art collectors like Bertha Potter Palmer and urban planners like Burnham), and
concludes with France’s continuing cultural influence on the Chicago of the late twentieth and early twenty-first
centuries. Besides France, the course looks at the influence of other French-speaking cultures in the city,
particularly the major economic exchange with Quebec. The course will include visits to consulates and other
French and French-speaking institutions in the city. It will also explore service opportunities related to Frenchspeaking countries (e.g., Haiti) within Chicago.
Students will learn about the origins and purpose of the “ghost story” as both an oral and written tradition. Ghost
stories, as well as traditions surrounding death, vary based on culture. This course will explore cultural traditions on
the topics of death, belief in the supernatural, and the ghost story narrative. These issues will be explored in the
context of Chicago’s culture and history. Cultural traditions from the cities major cultural groups will be included
(i.e. Día de los Muertos, Irish wake, All Hallows Eve traditions, etc.). Excursions will provide supplemental
learning experiences and could include the Chicago Ghost Tour, a visit to the Mexican Fine Arts Museum for the
Día de los Muertos exhibit, and a Chicago Historical Society tour of Graceland Cemetery.
This course is designed to begin a conversation about health and healthcare in the city. Through readings,
discussions and field trips, you will begin to explore the concept of health and the various ways it can be
considered. Along the way you will address several important questions: What does it mean to be healthy? What
does it mean to be ill? What resources are available to keep us healthy or return us to health? Healthcare in Chicago
will provide you with an opportunity to explore healthcare careers and their impact on individuals and
communities.
Note: Open only to students participating in the Pathways learning community.
Jewish Chicago
Daniel Kamin
International Studies
This course will give students a multicultural perspective on two communities that have been at odds for the past
century over the issue of sovereignty in Palestine/Israel. Despite the apparent conflict with respect to this issue,
these two communities are both significant minorities amongst the diverse ethnicities, races, and religions that
make up Chicago. Both immigrant communities have established solid foundations in metropolitan Chicago and
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both contribute to the multicultural diversity of the area. As neither community is homogeneous, the diversity
within each will also be covered. A primary purpose of the course will be to explore avenues of commonality
between these two communities in order to promote rapprochement/reconciliation between them.
Native Americans in
Chicago
Photographing Chicago
Landscapes
Plants, Chicago & the
Rest of Society
(2 sections)
Polish Immigrants in
Chicago: Then & Now
Nancy Turpin
History
Students in this course are signing up for a real exploration of Native Americans in the past and present of
Chicago. Most accounts of Chicago history have little or no information about the people who lived here before
the French and English even arrived. A few histories do show the earliest indigenous contacts with Europeans and
then the expulsion of the native peoples about the time Chicago became a city. And after that, not much. Students
in this course will travel around town, read books and websites, visit known historical sites of earlier Native
American activity, meet with community people in neighborhoods like Uptown (American Indian Center), Portage
Park, River North, visit historical archives at the Newberry Library and Field Museum of Natural History. Through
the collected field notes, bibliographic notes and term research paper, students in this course will collaborate in the
work of putting Native Americans back into that Big Picture of who and what Chicago is.
Steve Harp
Art. Media & Design
“Landscape” has multiple meanings. Traditionally it meant the natural environment as seen and considered by
human beings. Landscape is a construct, a human perception that cannot exist without us. Today the term broadly
encompasses everything seen in the world around us, both natural and “built.” Cities, too, are landscapes, the
quintessential human remaking of the natural world, and they define themselves by the structures we build. What
do the buildings and infrastructures, decorated by history, teach us about Chicago’s roots, its present and its future?
In class we will study the physical, architectural, social and cultural histories of several Chicago neighborhoods,
such as the Loop, Pilsen, Lawndale, Uptown, Wicker Park and Bucktown. How did successive waves of residents
reshape the built environment? How did land use change? First-hand observations, aided by the camera, will be our
starting point. Photographs remember everything and may later confirm our notions or invite a re-evaluation. With
pencil and camera, we will walk the streets gathering impressions and interviewing residents. Readings and guest
speakers will provide context for the neighborhoods we explore and study. Although the use of a camera is
required, no prior photographic experience is needed. Several site visits will be required, not all during class time.
Anthony Ippolito
Biological Sciences
Come explore the engaging, wonderful, and exotic world of plants! What are plants? How do plants get on with
life? How are plants integrated into every aspect of our lives? Our very existence is dependent on plants! This
course is designed for non-majors with little to no experience with plants. Plants are dynamic and interesting
creatures and are an integral part of our society. We will study plants via lecture material, readings, and various field
trips to Chicago area museums, conservatories, and business establishments in which plants are the products. By
using these Chicago area resources as a teaching tool, you will gain an appreciation of the variety of exhibits
available in Chicago and their educational importance and beauty. We will cover plant evolution, anatomy,
reproduction, economic and social importance.
Jason Schneider
Writing, Rhetoric, &
Discourse
This course will explore the world of Polish immigrants in Chicago, both historically and in the present. Poles are
currently the second-largest immigrant group in the Chicago area (behind Mexicans), and they have been a key
immigrant/ethnic group since the second half of the 19th century. For these reasons, there is a rich story of how
this community has grown and evolved over the decades, and of how Poles continue to contribute substantially to
Chicago’s economic and cultural development. In the course, we will explore this story, largely by focusing on
specific city neighborhoods and institutions that have been central to community life. This will involve actually
touring some of these areas and visiting with representatives from museums, libraries, churches, and at least one
community-based organization of political activists. As the course progresses, will we focus on Polish immigrants’
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present-day lives, ambitions, and struggles, including some of the challenges connected to labor and U.S. immigration law. In the end, students will develop a thorough understanding of one particular immigrant group’s past and
present relations to Chicago’s neighborhoods, politics, economics, and cultural life—and, in the process, they will
encounter a series of frameworks that are applicable to a wide range of other immigrant/ethnic groups in the city.
Postcards from the
Past: History of the
Lincoln Park
Neighborhood
Edward Udovic
History
Chicago is proverbially known as a “city of neighborhoods.” The Lincoln Park neighborhood (bounded by Lake
Michigan to the east, the Chicago River to the west, North Avenue to the south, and Diversey Boulevard to the
north) has been the home of DePaul University since its founding in 1898, and for St. Vincent’s parish since 1875.
The exploration this course will undertake is from the unique perspective of the material culture collections on the
history of Lincoln Park within the university’s Archives and Special Collections Departments. These items include
everything from postcards, to photographs, matchbooks, advertisements, commemorative items, business cards,
etc. Students will study the Lincoln Park material culture items, and actively relate and interpret them in the light of
the neighborhood’s history and present physicality. The physical proximity of the Lincoln Park neighborhood will
allow a large amount of out of classroom site visits within walking distance of the Lincoln Park campus.
Note: Open only to transfer students.
Representatives &
Representation in
Chicago
Sculpture in Chicago
Segregation & Racial
Change in Chicago,
1890-Present
Underground Music
Culture in Chicago
Zachary Cook
Political Science
This course examines local, state and federal representation of Chicago’s diverse neighborhoods. Students
investigate what concerns Chicago constituents have, who represents them, and what those representatives do in
Chicago and in Washington DC. The class first focuses on the nature of representation and the process of drawing
congressional district lines. Next we examine some of the different communities and issue concerns of the
Chicagoland area. We will be inviting multiple local elected officials and staffers to give presentations on their
constituents and how they serve them in office.
Margaret Lanterman
Art, Media & Design
After the Great Fire, Chicago rebuilt itself into one of the world's grandest cities. Sculpture has been a key
ingredient in that greatness. Learn how sculpture has worked to shape history and reflect the city’s Midwest and
immigrant values. Discover what motivated the movers and shakers of this youthful town to recruit talented
sculptors from around the world. Politics, financial secrets, altruism and heroic far-sightedness all played a role in
moving Chicago from the mud of a wild, provincial town to the sophisticated word-leader that it is today. Sculpture
is one lever that has kept that progress moving forward.
Mark Wodziak
Sociology
Through historical and contemporary readings and student experiences and knowledge, we will explore the social
forms of overt, unintentional, covert, direct and in-direct, systematic and subtle discrimination. The period from
1900 to present will be our timeframe to analyze and measure the indicators associated with racial change – white
flight, redlining, block-busting, panic peddling, soliciting, and racial attitudes and prejudice – in Chicago.
Demographic data will be used to bring alive for student’s patterns and forms of segregation and boundary
maintenance among a set of inner city neighborhoods and residents of Chicago. These data will provide for
students the opportunity to map social distance, determine where physical and cognitive maps demarcate racial
change, and locate areas experiencing signs of racial change (e.g., housing, schools, business etc.).
Daniel Makagon
Communication
In an effort to understand better how creative cultural production is central to Chicago (spatially and symbolically),
this course will focus on contemporary forms of underground (or bohemian) culture in Chicago. We will explore
the ways in which various underground cultural practices function as both important sources of local identity and
an opportunity to put Chicago on a larger creative map. Students will study a range of underground cultural
practices in Chicago (e.g., alternative rock, rap, reggae, and techno music production and night clubs), alternative
LSP 111: EXPLORE CHICAGO
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media outlets (e.g., radio stations and fanzines), and public art (e.g., graffiti and murals). Additionally, we will
investigate how underground cultural producers develop relationships with city officials or resist official forms of
support (or co-optation). We will take fieldtrips to a variety of sites and discuss the issues with guest speakers. The
course will ultimately introduce students to a variety of theoretical issues about urban life, communication and
culture, city politics, and community as well as the aesthetic and business practices of people who are involved with
such issues vis-à-vis the production of culture in Chicago. In an effort to extend the experiential features of this
course all major course assignments will require students to underground cultural spaces and practices in Chicago.
These assignments will allow students to explore places alone, with a partner, or in a small group (depending on
each student’s interest).
Unveiling Occult
Chicago: Secret
Societies, Magicians &
Alternative Spiritualties
Windy City Politics in
Action
Women in Chicago
Theatre
Jason Winslade
Writing, Rhetoric, &
Discourse
Dubbed “Psychic City” by journalist Brad Steiger in the 1970s, Chicago has long been an epicenter for esoteric
currents, alternative spiritualties and progressive philosophies. In the 1890s, the jewel of Chicago’s skyline was the
famous Masonic Temple Building, one of the tallest buildings in the world at the time, designed, owned and
occupied by the fraternal order of Freemasonry. In the 1920s, Chicago was also home to one of the few American
temples of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, an esoteric group highly influential in the development of
modern Western Occultism. Chicago has served as the home base for noted occultists and esoteric philosophers
such as Paschal Beverly Randolph, Paul Foster Case, Emma Curtis Hopkins, William Walker Atkinson, and even
the notorious Aleister Crowley, for a time. Chicago continues to nurture countless organizations, communities and
individuals who continue these esoteric traditions, including Kabbalists, Wiccans, Yogis, and Theosophists, as well
as Santerians, Vodun and Hoodoo practitioners, and even Ecstatic Dancers and Burners (members of the Burning
Man community). Focusing on prominent individuals and organizations that have benefited from Chicago’s
diverse population and progressive foundation, we will study our local manifestations of these belief systems and
movements, within the cultural context of modern American mysticism and esotericism. Further, we will address
how this local “occulture” has influenced mainstream thought, rhetoric and values, particularly within the realm of
contemporary politics and activism.
Nicholas
Kachiroubas
School of Public Service
Students taking this course will gain an understanding of (1) the governmental structure of Chicago, (2) the socioeconomic diversity of Chicago, and (3) how “things get done” in Chicago. Each student will adopt a public body
(Chicago City Council, Park District Board, Board of Education, Cook County Board, and the Metropolitan Water
Reclamation District Board). They will be organized in teams of three to five, each team member being responsible
for a different public body. After an introduction to Chicago geography, demography and voting patterns, each
team will pick a ward to research. Teams will study the demographics and politics of their wards. They will identify
political issues and trace how these issues are communicated to the various public bodies for action, and how the
actions of public bodies can create political issues at a local level. Each team will report to the entire class, which
will discuss differences and similarity in politics among wards. To provide a common experiential base, the
instructor will lead field trips to events such as a Chicago City Council budget hearing and a Ward Night at a
political headquarters. Guest speakers will range from political reporters to politicians.
Laila Farah
Women’s & Gender
Studies
Chicago is known nationwide as a thriving center of live theatre. Literally hundreds of home-grown theatre groups
operate in Chicago, from the many new groups started by young theatre artists to internationally renowned
companies such as the Goodman, Court, and Chicago Shakespeare. Students will learn how theatrical productions
are selected, rehearsed, designed, and performed. We will also experience its present state, through research, visits
with local theatre professionals, and trips to theatres. We will be focusing on attending original work and plays
produced and directed by women and underrepresented theatre professionals, including performance artists.
LSP 111: EXPLORE CHICAGO
 AUTUMN 2014
Through these activities, students will witness how Chicago’s diversity is truly reflected in its theatre companies and
productions.
The World’s Fair &
Social Reform
Writing Chicago
Neighborhoods:
Literature in the City
Julie MoodyFreeman
African & Black
Diaspora Studies
This course studies people, events, and ideas in the history of Chicago that have brought about social reforms that
have transformed lives in Chicago and the United States. In the first half of this course, we will examine how
activism by women and African Americans around initial conceptions of the 1893 Columbian Exposition brought
national spotlight on Chicago, which resulted in the participation of women and Blacks. In the second half of this
course, we will examine Jane Addams’ and Ida B. Wells-Barnett’s individual work and interracial coalition to found
settlement houses, promote women’s suffrage, challenge segregation in Chicago schools, and end lynching and war
in the United States.
Sarah Fay
English
In this section of Explore Chicago, you will “write” various Chicago neighborhoods. In addition, you will read texts
by authors who spent time here, including Audrey Niffenegger, Upton Sinclair, Sandra Cisneros, Nelson Algren,
Aleksander Hemon, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Ernest Hemingway. Via lectures, discussions, fieldwork, writing, and
reading, you will explore the literature of your new city, consider myriad topics—such as madness, apparitions,
corruption, community, addiction, and identity—and embark on the beginning of the rest of your life.
LSP 111: EXPLORE CHICAGO
 AUTUMN 2014