LOS ANGELES: A POLYMATHIC INQUIRY
Thematic Option/CORE 450
Guided by the writings of Carey McWilliams
Fall 2015 – 2 units/Spring 2016 – 2 units
As social, cultural, engineering, environmental, and demographic
constructs, cities are among the most complex entities on the
planet. As a world city, Los Angeles participates in this complexity.
To study a city in its components and its totality, its people and its
systems, its physical fabric and moral meaning, is by definition an
integrated, interdisciplinary, or polymathic pursuit. Carey
McWilliams – attorney, historian, journalist, civil rights activist,
even prophet – wrote about Southern California from a polymathic
perspective. In this course professors William Deverell and
Karin Huebner, and distinguished Los Angeles experts will
guide students through a two-part, yearlong polymathic inquiry into
Los Angeles as fact and imaginative creation.
Sessions meet on selected Wednesdays 2p – 3:50p in the
Sidney Harman Academy for Polymathic Study, DML 241.
Students wishing to enroll should send a resume and brief statement
describing their interest in the course to Dr. Karin Huebner at
khuebner@usc.edu.
This course is open to all students.