golden gate park (spring 2015)

MS 195: Golden Gate Park (First-Year Seminar)

Tuesdays & Thursdays 9:55–11:40 am, Kalmanovitz 167

Professor David Silver

Office/hours: Kalmanovitz 141, Tuesdays & Thursdays 2–3:00 pm & by appointment

Contact: dmsilver [ at ] usfca [ dot ] edu

Golden Gate Park is a First-Year Seminar that explores the history, built environment, mixed uses, and popular narratives of San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Through readings, class discussions, and library workshops, students will develop a broad and keen understanding of the park; through field trips and park walks, students will gain valuable on-site experience in and with the park. An accelerated writing seminar, Golden Gate Park fulfills USF’s Core A2 requirement.

Learning Outcomes

In this class, students will learn:

1. How to read, analyze, and summarize multiple texts of varying lengths and complexities; 
2. How to develop interesting research questions based on extensive research and individual interests; 
3. How to use both library and online tools to find relevant material from a range of sources and disciplines; 
4. How to write, edit, revise, and polish clear and compelling essays that, when necessary, keep with the conventions of academic writing; and 
5. How some sand dunes called the Outside Lands became Golden Gate Park.

 

Required Text

You are required to purchase a map of Golden Gate Park. The map, which costs between $2-3, can be found at the gift shops of the De Young Museum and the Botanical Garden.

All readings will be made available for free – online, outside my office, or via Gleeson Library. Until notified otherwise, students are required to print out readings, which can be done inexpensively at Gleeson Library.

Course Schedule

Cluster 1: Golden Gate Park and its many uses

Tuesday, 1/27: Introductions

Thursday, 1/29: Read: Gary Kamiya’s “The Park,” from Cool Gray City of Love: 49 Views of San Francisco (Bloomsbury, 2013): pp. 202-207.

Tuesday, 2/3: Field trip to Golden Gate Park

Thursday, 2/5: Read: Terence Young, “Romantic Golden Gate Park,” from Building San Francisco’s Parks, 1850-1930 (John Hopkins University Press, 2004): pp. 70-97.

Tuesday, 2/10: Prior to class, listen/read/walk with: Marina McDougall, Alison Sant, Richard Johnson, and Kirstin Bach, “An Unnatural History of Golden Gate Park,” a 7-part guided podcast (Studio for Urban Projects, 2008): http://www.anunnaturalhistory.net/podcast.xml

Thursday, 2/12: Read: Philip J. Dreyfus, “Greening the City,” from Our Better Nature: Environment and the Making of San Francisco (University of Oklahoma Press, 2008): pp. 67-100.

Tuesday, 2/17: In-class writing workshop.

Thursday, 2/19: Paper 1 due in class.

Cluster 2: California Midwinter International Exposition

Tuesday, 2/24: Read: James R. Smith, “California Midwinter International Exposition – 1894,” from San Francisco’s Lost Landmarks (Word Dancer Press, 2005): pp. 111-126; and Mae Silver, “1894 Midwinter Fair: Women artists, an appreciation,” FoundSF (March 17, 1994): http://bit.ly/1EscQKv

Thursday, 2/26: Library workshop with Gleeson librarians Joe Garity, Sherise Kimura, and Carol Spector.

Tuesday, 3/3: Read: Barbara Berglund, “The Days of Old, the Days of Gold, the Days of ‘49”: Identity, History, and Memory at the California Midwinter International Exposition, 1894,” The Public Historian (Fall 2003): pp. 25-49.

Thursday, 3/5: Read: Kendall H. Brown, “Rashômon: The multiple histories of the Japanese Tea Garden at Golden Gate Park," Studies in the History of Gardens and Designed Landscapes (April-June 1998): pp 93-119.

Tuesday: 3/10: Field trip (with Shawn Calhoun, Gleeson Library) to Music Concourse and the Japanese Tea Garden.

Thursday, 3/12: Paper 2 due in class.

SPRING BREAK (March 16-20)

Cluster 3: Playland Pop-Up

Tuesday, 3/24: Read: Selections from James R. Smith, San Francisco’s Playland at the Beach: The early years (Craven Street Books, 2010).

Thursday, 3/26: Read: Selections from James R. Smith, San Francisco’s Playland at the Beach: The golden years (Craven Street Books, 2013).

Tuesday, 3/31: Field trip to the de Young Museum.

Thursday, 4/2: Guests: Marjorie Schwarzer, administrative director of USF's graduate museum studies program, and Glori Simmons, director of USF's Thacher Gallery.

Tuesday, 4/7: Pop-up workshop. Class meets in Thacher Gallery.

Thursday, 4/9: Guest: Anne-Marie Deitering, Franklin A. McEdward Professor for Undergraduate Learning Initiatives, Oregon State University. From 12-1 pm: Playland Pop-Up in USF's Thacher Gallery.

Cluster 4: The Park and You

Tuesday, 4/14: Read: Gary Kamiya’s “If you were a Bird,” from Cool Gray City of Love: 49 Views of San Francisco (Bloomsbury, 2013): pp. 312-317; and selected readings/media about the Human Be-In in Golden Gate Park.

Thursday, 4/16: Read: Selected readings on The Diggers. Guest: Morgan Fitzgibbons, Environmental Studies, USF and member of the Wigg Party. Class meets at the panhandle.

Tuesday, 4/21: Read: Class-sourced readings about Soup Kitchens in Golden Gate Park during the 1906 Earthquake and Victory Gardens during WWI and WWII.

Thursday, 4/23: NO CLASS. Instead, we meet that evening at Off the Grid http://offthegridsf.com, at Stanyan and Waller, for dinner.

Tuesday, 4/28: Read: Jacqueline Hoefer, “Ruth Asawa: A Working Life,” in The Sculpture of Ruth Asawa: Contours in the Air, edited by Daniell Cornell, pp. 10-29.

Thursday, 4/30: Read: Josh Sides, “The Unspoken Sexuality of Golden Gate Park,” in Erotic City: Sexual Revolutions and the Making of Modern San Francisco, pp. 123-140.

Tuesday, 5/5: Student Presentations in the Park

Thursday, 5/7: Student Presentations in the Park (continued)

Tuesday, 5/12: Class party in the park

Thursday, 5/14: Final Project due in class

There is no final exam in this class.

Grading

10%   Homework, in-class assignments, and quizzes

10%   Class/field trip participation

20%   Paper 1

20%   Paper 2

20%   Playland Pop-Up Project

20%   The Park and You Project

Attendance Policy

Missing class, or attending class unprepared, will significantly affect your final grade. If you do miss class, contact a classmate to find out what we discussed in class and ask to borrow her or his notes. Then, do the same with a second classmate. After doing this, if you still have questions about missed material, visit me during office hours or email me.

Academic Integrity

Plagiarism is using another person’s words and/or ideas without giving appropriate credit.  Plagiarism is a serious violation of academic honor and personal integrity and can result in failing an assignment, being removed from this course, or even being asked to leave USF.

Rules

1. No late work accepted. 
2. In class and on field trips, no drinking out of non-reusable containers.