Dear Urban Studies student,
Welcome to the Berkeley campus, to ATDP, and to a summer full of fun and learning! My name is Susanne Cowan and I will be your instructor, for the Urban Studies course.
This is my third year teaching for ATDP and I am really excited to be teaching this class again this summer. This course, on urban studies and utopian thinking in the 20th century, derives from my own education in architecture and urban history. Ever since I participated in a high school summer program in Architecture at USC, I have been curious about studying the social and built environment of cities. I pursued this interest by completing a Bachelors degree in Landscape Architecture and a Masters degree in Architecture History, both from the University of California, Berkeley. I love to travel and have taken every opportunity to visit new cities to observe a diverse array of urban design issues. The material covered in this course is very close to my heart. I am excited to share my interest with all of you. Teaching has always been one of my passions. I have enjoyed teaching students of all ages, as an environmental educator for Americorps, a long-term substitute teacher at Berkeley High School, and as a Graduate Student Instructor at University of California, Berkeley. I look forward to meeting all of you and hearing your own ideas about urban society.
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