DC & LA: American Capitals

Have you ever been to Washington DC and Los Angeles? Like, really seen them? There’s more in each than you know, and something interesting happens when you put them together. This course pairs the nation’s political capital with the nation’s cultural capital. Over the course of the twentieth century, these two cities came to shape and reflect how Americans saw themselves -- and how the world saw the United States. Both cities are central to “Americanness” and yet are also vilified as transient, fake, and corrupt. Both cities are diverse and majority non-white and yet remain seats of white power. Both cities are defined by a powerful industry yet have lives and histories those industries fail to capture. In this SSIR course, students will grapple with deeper histories and more complex urban narratives, developing lenses for seeing every environment in new ways. 

Inside the Classroom

Our work of understanding these complicated – and surprisingly related – cities begins with studying their histories. Despite being on opposite coasts and founded for very different purposes, these cities have much in common and have long been connected, as powerful elites in each sought to shape the other. They are also both “known" and “unknown”— familiar and nearby but with hidden pasts and underappreciated presents. Studied together, they raise fascinating questions about culture, power, representation, and place. Examining the history of these two “capitals” together invites students into a conversation about the relationship between political culture and popular culture, and between powerful cultural institutions (the Hollywood studio) and political institutions (the federal government). It invites students to examine the ways popular culture has shaped our images of DC and LA and to delve into the more complicated, diverse histories of two iconic American metropolises. Comparing two metropolises with very different ecologies and built environments presses students to examine how people make place -- and how place and environment shape culture.

Outside the Classroom

Students will participate in two different trips as part of this SSIR class. A fall trip to Washington, DC, will explore the city as both a monumental capital and a constellation of lived communities. Sites may include the US Capitol; the Lincoln and MLK Jr. Memorials; the Smithsonian Castle; the DC History Center; the Frederick Douglass house; and guided walking tours of the U Street Corridor and Georgetown. We may take in a Capitals hockey game, lunch at Ben’s Chili Bowl, and dinner at El Tamarindo in Adams Morgan. A trip to Los Angeles, CA, during winter break will explore the city as both the home of the entertainment industry and of many lived communities and social movements. Sites may include Paramount Studios, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, the Japanese American National Museum & Little Tokyo, the California African American Museum & Watts Towers, La Plaza de Cultura y Artes and Olvera Street. We may take a walking tour of historic downtown Los Angeles, see the stars’ handprints in cement at Grauman’s Chinese Theater, hike up to the Hollywood sign, and tour the mid-century modern Stahl house in the Hollywood Hills. 

Research and Capstone Experience

For the course’s Spring semester capstone, we are envisioning a project in which the class curates an online exhibition on the pairing of DC & LA. Students will conceptualize, research, and mount an exhibition exploring the interconnections between these two cities. All students would learn how to select images that encapsulate an intended message and how to write for a public audience. They will work independently and in teams focused on overall design, editing, and marketing of the exhibition.