NATAMST 190 | Making Sense of Place

2019 Spring

Beth Piatote & Ramya Janandharan

How do we know where we are, and who we are, through our senses? What maps do we read not by sight but by smell or feel? How do the histories of a place emerge in the sound of a creekbed, the taste of tea, the smell of curry or the sight of a street sign? In this course, we will be reading and writing about place through sensory perceptions, using the UC Berkeley campus and the greater Bay Area as our laboratory. We will explore indigenous ways of relating to homelands as well as diasporic patterns of place-making, turning toward the sensory world as our guide.