Welcome to USP2

Students:

Greetings and welcome to USP2. I am Andrew, your TA. This is my fourth time TAing for this course, and the second time for Professor Pezzoli, so please feel free to use me as a resource.

My office hours are from 2-3pm Wednesday afternoons at the Grove Cafe. The Grove is in Student Center B [Old Student Center] between the Crafts Center and the Bike Shop.

As you can see from the class syllabus, Section is worth 10% of your grade. For my classes, your grade will be determined by attendance. This means that you must attend all 10 sections to earn all 10 points. Attendance is taken by a sign-in sheet which will be passed around at the beginning of section. You must sign yourself in each week, no exceptions. You are allowed to miss one section without an excuse. If you have more than one unexcused absence, you will receive a zero for your section grade, not exceptions. Exceptions are of two kinds: if you know you have a conflict, let me know IN ADVANCE and we will work something out. Or, if you have an emergency situation, contact me AFTERWARD as soon as possible and we will work it out.


Section is a time where we will discuss class readings, connect them to themes discussed in lecture, and hopefully link them to experiences you've had in your lives as well. So do the week's readings BEFORE you come to section so you ARE READY TO DISCUSS them!

When you are reading, keep in mind that you already have many resources available to you online from Professor Pezzoli. And I realize that there is a heavy reading load--so adjust your approach to your reading: DO NOT attempt to memorize the details of every paragraph, but seek to identify and understand the main argument of and key evidence used by each article or book chapter assigned to you. This will help you to not only manage the reading load, but to develop critical reading skills.


I'd also like to say a word about the nature of this class. From the title The Urban World System, I hope you can tell that we are going to ask big questions and deal with gigantic subjects. This class presents an overview of global processes of urbanization, capitalism, and sustainability, so keep your head open to such large subjects. Moreover, we will be consistently dealing with inequality on a global scale, so no matter how meager your family's circumstances may be, be mindful of how the "other half" lives: on less than 1$ a day, without access to clean water-medicine-education-secure housing, and often threatened by war and disease. Tackling these problems requires big thinking, so don't shy away from that task.

Finally, this blog is a space open to you all as well. Send me an email at acheyne@ucsd.edu if you'd like to participate, and I'll add you as an author.

Good luck, and I'll see you in class.
Andrew