The final paper for this course will be the culmination of your previous writings based on diverse readings and screenings on the theme of Home. In it you will be using your other essays and responses as building blocks to construct a paper that explains and illustrates the ways in which Home is a multidimensional concept and experience that encompasses the body, the mind and spirit, the physical residence, the city/town and neighborhood, and the environment.
We have explored Home as both an individual and communal space and one which has evolved over time as a place of comfort and security, privacy, and well-being. We have discussed design and technology. We have also considered how home is not always a safe, fair, or permanent place for all because of myriad forces, such as colonization and racism, gentrification and poverty, war, environmental disasters and urban renewal, and population growth and changing demographics. Homes are inextricably bound to our history and identity; they are the repositories of the best and worst aspects of our humanity. Whether we live in a penthouse on Nob Hill or on a bench in Golden Gate Park, there is much to say about the values, ideas and practices that comprise the place we call Home.
