"This course investigates the spatial politics of New York City urbanism from the modernist era of the twentieth century to the present. The class introduces students to historical grassroots movements, urban reform, and proposed and realized design and art interventions in city spaces as public processes of engagement with the material, visual, and intellectual cultures of territorial conflicts, such as urban renewal and redevelopment, preservation, and gentrification. We examine historic debates over public space, the spatial practices of urban communities and their intersection with cultural, political, and governmental authorities. Through accounts of community activists, social theory, and archival documentation, students will become familiar with major concepts in debates over public spaces. Within these discussions, we consider historical contexts of social and racial inequalities and their contemporary implications on the urban landscape, and while focusing on public spaces of the boroughs of New York City, our inquiry also looks at correlations with relevant examples in other cities. To encourage an interdisciplinary understanding of the cultural contexts of these transformations to public space, we discuss historic and contemporary perspectives from art and design history, urban theory, cultural geography, and urban design, and popular viewpoints.