Mimi Cowan, historian
​history​.urbanstudies.chicago.
January - May 2015 Classes
Intro to Urban Studies
Lake Forest College
Intro to Urban Studies is the required core course for Lake Forest College's interdisciplinary minor in Urban Studies. As such, we use the tools of a variety of academic disciplines to explore life in urban areas. An important focus of the class is the relationship between urban space and its inhabitants: how do people shape urban areas? How does urban space determine the experiences of its residents? Students investigate urban studies through assigned readings, in-class discussions, class field trips, and individual excursions and are encouraged to express their observations through written, oral, and creative presentations.
Future Classes
Religion & Architechture in Chicago (AMER 200 & 480)
Lake Forest College
Chicago is a city known for its architecture: from Burnham to Mies to Trump. But this course will take a look at the other architectural pantheon in Chicago: it's religious spaces and places. We'll look at what makes these spaces and places religious, where they take their architectural inspiration from, and how they are part of their neighborhoods and the city itself. Get ready for a bunch of field trips!
Coming Spring 2015 - register now!
Past Classes
Intro to American Studies
​Lake Forest College
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What is American culture? Is it unique? Is it derivative? How did it get this way? In Intro to American Studies we'll examine all of these questions, from the landing of the Pilgrims, through to present day. We'll look at the history, politics, and beliefs that shape American culture and the music, literautre, religion - and more! - that is the product.
American History I, pre-European to Industrialization
​Lake Forest College
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Who were the people, what did they believe, what did they do, why did they do it? How to we get from Puritan to Paternalism? American History I begins with a look at how pre-European arrival cultures are still part of our national culture and how non-English European colonizers in what is now the U.S. are still a part of our national landscape. We'll make our way through history to the closing of the Civil War and the beginning of an industrialized America. What's changed? What hasn't? And, most importantly, how and why is this history still important to us today?
Professional Development in the Loop
​Lake Forest College
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A new class offering this semester, Professional Development in the Loop is offered to students who are part of Lake Forest College's In the Loop program. The program offers Lake Forest students an opportunity to live in downtown Chicago while undertaking an internship and continuing their classroom learning. Professional Development in the Loop will combine readings and in-class discussions about Chicago history, culture, and business with outside-the-classroom adventures in order to challenge students to think about the ways self, career, and community come together to create our living environment and experiences.