79-277 What's Your Story? Family History, Biography, and Autobiography

9 units, Carnegie Mellon University

This course will explore the genealogy of the term ghetto. For most Americans, ghetto probably makes them think of poor urban neighborhoods, or of Jews living under Nazi oppression. Most do not know that the first ghetto was established 500 years ago, to keep Jews separate from Catholics. After quickly reviewing how ghettos spread throughout early modern Europe, the course will shift its focus to the Americas. We will examine when and how the term ghetto arrived in the United States, and how the use and application of the term changed before the 1930s. For the majority of the course we will study how ghetto became associated with black urban neighborhoods, and what role local, state, and federal governments played in forming postwar American ghettos. By the end of the course students should better understand the origins of current urban policy and will be prepared to critique and make arguments about how urban policy is often used as a political tool.

Prerequisites: none listed

Offered: Spring 2027

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