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Neil Haran

Honors 1000
Dr. DeNicolo
1 December 2016
Reflective Essay
Detroit seems to be an attractive place to study. Not necessarily attractive in the sense of
the wild excitement that a city like New York or Los Angeles might offer, but rather in the sense
that it presents a hotspot of political, economic, and social activity and movement throughout
time. A rich well of knowledge to be drawn upon for anyone interested in the study of cities. That
being said, I did walk into class the first day with some preconcieved expectations. Even while
Detroits history is rich, there can be no denial that the city itself holds a collectively-constructed
reputation- one that is not necessarily fair, but colors our perceptions anyway. I am pleased, as
we quickly approach the end of this class, to state that what I learned in this class provided me
with adequate tools to deconstruct and critically think for myself about the image that has been
constructed for Detroit and its citizens throughout the ages.
I found the lectures to be a useful tool to compile and draw upon several schools of
thought while maintaining focus on one or two themes and events at a time. What personally
interested me were the lectures on Ossian Sweets case as well as the lectures on the 1967
uprisings termed the race riots because of the ways that I think race, and especially the
construct of anti-blackness is not merely formative of but rather foundational to Detroits history
and current moment. The assignments helped apply the lectures content to other processes of
critical thinking and interrogation of the dominant historical narratives, as well as help expose

the ways that the world around us is in a constant process of shifting. I found the analytic of
Urban Form and Way of Seeing and their co-constitutive relationship to be an incredible tool to
have in ones mental kit in situations where analysis of evolving phenomenon might be needed.
The passport events were equally-engaging. I thought that the real-life interaction with
artifacts of Detroits past and present, we were able to have enriching experiences that brought
the class material to life outside of just theorizing our abstract relations to them. Creating that
physical form of content and criticism, especially in a class within the city that is the subject of
its urban study, felt like the cherry on top.
While I would not say that the class dramatically changed my ideology or general
apprehension of the world, its structures, and its functioning, I do think that the fluid and
adaptable analytics such as Urban Form and Ways of Seeing that we gained will be useful in
future courses to think about my personal surroundings and subjects of study, if not applied to
the course material itself. I also think that the class will be useful to analyze and self-critique the
internalizations of my personal experiences with the city over the course of the next three and a
half years. Knowledge production can hardly be isolated to the classroom, and if the class has
taught me anything, its that the way that we form our knowledge will directly affect the
presentation of that knowledges outcome.

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