Methods Seminars are in-depth, interdisciplinary investigations of a particular problem or theme. These seminars focus on ways of knowing the world characteristic of the disciplines represented in the seminar, such that the forms or methods of investigation are as important as the subject matter itself.

What does it mean to talk of "the bad part of town," the suburbs, economic zones, or the nation? How much do these spatial identities reflect the reality of our world, and how much do they shape them? This course will examine the connections between difference, power, and space. We will focus on how notions of race shape and are shaped by our understandings of space; from the ghetto to the suburb, from the ethnic enclave to the reservation, from the country to the urban city center. We will engage with the meanings of space, and how places are infused with markers of identity and exercises of power. We will ask how these formations inform notions of inclusion, exclusion, cooperation, and conflict; and how we support or resist them.