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<\/p>\nI started teaching a class at Temple University Japan called Global Cities this term. It is a General Education course that introduces students to contemporary aspects of urbanization around the world. A few thoughts on the class and teaching methods after the jump.<\/p>\n
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Kampala, Uganda<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Given that is the first time I am running this class, I have stuck quite carefully to the syllabus used at Temple’s main campus in the US. There, the course takes a regional approach, following the\u00a0Cities of the World\u00a0<\/em><\/a>textbook that is widely used across undergraduate and graduate classes in this area.<\/p>\n The order of regions we followed this time was North America, Europe, Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East, South Asia and East Asia, skipping Southeast Asia and the CIS. I would have liked to cover both, but time was \/ is running short.<\/p>\n We end the class with two Tokyo lectures, and had the pleasure of hosting a senior analyst from the Mori Memorial Foundation<\/a> for a guest lecture on the organization’s Global Power City Index<\/a>. The Tokyo classes will be a short summary of some of the lectures I give for my other, dedicated class on the Japanese capital<\/a>, due for an overhaul next term.<\/p>\n This is a GenEd class, i.e. one normally taken by first-year students to orient themselves in academia and pick up some transferable skills. I therefore put some a little more focus than usual on presentation skills, essay planning, academic source research, case study selection as well as reading some non-academic literary non-fiction. The final essay also requires a first draft.<\/p>\n I look forward to the students’ feedback and to fine-tuning this approach with the next iteration of the class in 2019. I am not sure I will use the textbook in its entirety as this term, and will definitely add more external readings. I hope to share some snippets of the syllabus once complete.<\/p>\n I will also post a few items on this blog that delve a little deeper into the issues presented in class. These include some thoughts on the sub-Saharan Africa lecture and assignment, literary non-fiction from India and others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I started teaching a class at Temple University Japan called Global Cities this term. It is a General Education course that introduces students to contemporary aspects of urbanization around the world. A few thoughts on the class and teaching methods … Continue reading