Walking is the movement between two places. Like eating or breathing, walking is a universal act to which humans have given special but different meanings over the course of time, from erotic to spiritual, from revolutionary to artistic. The history of walking is as much a physical history of bipedal evolution and human anatomy as it is a cultural and environmental history. As such, it is concerned with the pleasures, freedoms, privileges and meanings pursued at different times and by different types of walkers and strollers, and how these have shaped and been shaped by physical spaces. Walking produces paths, roads and trade routes. It produces local and global senses of place, has shaped cities and parks as well as mountain approaches and hiking equipment.

In the seminar on this topic, students explored walking, developing and elaborating routes.