Art and Architecture in Boston
CAS AM 371
Studies the art and architecture of Boston through lectures, readings, walking tours, and gallery visits. Explores Boston’s neighborhoods and the works of major artists, sculptors, and architects working in Boston. Themes include the emergence of the museum as a cultural force and the city’s interpretations of, and contribution to, European and American art and architecture. 4 cr.

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Food, Culture, and Society
CAS AN 308
Study of foodways, culinary social history, and diet and food ecology with special attention to Asian societies and Boston's food culture. Examines the use of food and cuisine as a focus for identity, national development, and social change. 4 cr.

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Archaeology of Colonial Boston
CAS AR 372/GRS AR 772
Boston's "Big Dig" the Central Artery/Third Harbor Tunnel Project, is only the most recent and most highly visible project to bring to light parts of Boston's buried history. Learn about the daily lives of Boston's early residents through an exploration of artifacts and features that archaeologists have excavated from many sites throughout the city. Course participants walk Boston's streets and visit the Boston Harbor Islands guided by archaeologists who have helped unearth the city's past. Visits to local archaeological laboratories make it possible to view and even to handle some of the most recent finds not just from the "Big Dig" but also from beneath Faneuil Hall, the Boston Common, and many other famous spots in the city. 4 cr. Undergraduate

Read a BU Bridge article about this class: Urban archaeology digs life in colonial Boston.

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Boston's People and Neighborhoods
CAS SO 306
Walking and talking through the city and its history, students explore important themes in the development of the city through a sociological perspective. Among the topics considered are ethnicity, education, neighborhood development and politics. 4 cr.

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Topics in Contemporary Drama: Boston’s Best Playwrights
CFA DR 508
A dramatic literature course that marries text analysis of contemporary and new works with conversations with living playwrights. Classes based in rigorous discussion, rather than lecture, and students from disciplines across the university are welcome. 4 cr.

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Politics, Public Relations and Public Policy: The Boston Harbor Clean Up
Offers a unique investigation of how business, advocate groups, environmentalists and government can affect the outcome of large projects through negotiation, regulatory process and interaction. Students will gain insights into the legal, social, environmental and historical context that led to the $4 billion dollar twenty year project that took the Boston Harbor from a sewage infested environment to a swimmable national park. The instructor, Mr. Berman, has served as communication director and spokesman for Save the Harbor/Bay for nearly ten years. He is one of the region's foremost experts on the restoration as well as the flora and fauna of the Harbor area. Intensive course. 4 cr.

This course was featured in the BU Bridge: Learning about the Boston Harbor Cleanup from the waterway’s eyes, ears, and mouthpiece.

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Coastal Environments of Massachusetts
MET ES 241
Focuses on the geology and natural history of the Massachusetts North and South Shores, including Cape Cod and the Islands. Many protected areas featuring harbors and tidal flats, which contrast with the high-energy shorelines facing the high swells of open Atlantic Ocean, serve as ideal natural laboratories for studying this geologically young and ever-changing landscape. The course explores major landforms produced by melting glaciers at the end of the Great Ice Age and the role of severe storms, sea-level rise, and human impact in shaping the region's coastline over the past 10,000 years. The lecture series is complemented by two Saturday field trips to the North Shore and South Shore/Cape Cod. 4 cr.

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History of Boston
MET HI 373
Provides an overview of the evolution and development of Boston, and examines Boston's unique cultures as manifested in religious, political, social and aesthetic thought and events. 4 cr.

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Special Topics: Between Past and Present: A Social History of Boston's North End
MET UA 510
This socio-cultural history of Boston's North End examines the dynamics of cultural persistence and change from the colonial period to the present. Topics include the witch hysteria of Salem as viewed from Cotton Mather's North End, the American Revolution and Paul Revere, the Boston Brahmans, and the Irish and Jewish immigrants. Central attention is given to Italian immigration and the formation of the North End as a "Little Italy" and events such as the Ponzi scandal, the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti and the Great Molasses Flood, the drug violence of the 1970s, tourism and gentrification. We utilize historical documents, sociological analysis of religious beliefs, immigration and urban communities, organized crime, current research on gentrification, urban development, and tourism. 4 cr.

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Boston Experience: The Role of Architecture in Creating a Sense of Place
MET UA 580
An introduction to the formal study of architecture. Introduces the concept that the role of architecture is to develop and maintain a sense of place. Establishes why and how a “sense of place” is important to humans for social and psychological reasons and is also important to societies for economic, political, and health and recreational reasons. The city of Boston serves as a living laboratory for this introductory study of architecture. Using this laboratory, students will work on controversial issues of historic preservation, upkeep, repair, restoration, improvement, modification, removal, adaptive renewal, and new construction as these processes relate to the importance of a sense of place. 4 cr.

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