Course Descriptions
Fall 2024 Courses
(program students choose two of three courses, others can take a single course)
Food Cultures in Philadelphia (ENGL B287)
Kate Thomas, BMC
Tuesday, 12:10–3:00 p.m.
Philadelphia has an exceptionally rich dining culture. “Jeet yet?” is a common refrain in a city that boasts African American, Italian and German communities of long standing, and more recent, culinarily impactful settlement by East Asian and Mexican populations. This course will explore the deep history of dining in Philadelphia, from Lenape foodways to the skills of Hercules Posey – George Washington’s enslaved chef – to the recent participation of Philadelphia cooks and restaurateurs in social justice movements.
Topics that this class will pursue range across time and culture, engaging cross-cultural and cross-temporal questions like: immigration, religion and food, Philadelphia’s place at the center of local and global networks of production and extraction, social dining clubs vs home cooking, the shifting history of street markets, publishing culture and the recipe book, false abundance and food deserts. This course will be taught in Philadelphia as part of the Tri-Co Philly Program. This course will be taught in Philadelphia as part of the Tri-Co Philly Program.
Grassroots Economies: Creating Livelihoods in an Age of Urban Inequality (POLS H262)
Craig Borowiak, HC
Wednesday, 12:30–3:00 p.m.
We live in an age of intensifying economic inequality, the consequences of which are reflected in the landscapes of many modern cities. In Philadelphia, for example, decades of deindustrialization and urban flight have left the city pockmarked with abandoned lots, deep poverty, and segregated neighborhoods while new capitalist developments have led to concentrated wealth in the city center and gentrifying outward pressures on nearby neighborhoods. For many city dwellers, the mainstream economy is a source of alienation and disempowerment. When that economy fails to provide, what options remain?
The aim of the course would be to examine the political and economic constraints generated by poverty and racial and class segregation in contemporary urban environments and how grassroots economic initiatives rooted in mutual aid often fill the gaps and provide alternative ways to meet needs and generate supportive community. Examples of such initiatives range from guerrilla gardens and artist collectives to worker cooperatives and informal revolving loan funds. Many of these initiatives are informal. Some are legal, others less so. Many also fall under the radar of mainstream studies, which instead focus on capitalist markets, government welfare, and nonprofit philanthropy. Though many grassroots economic initiatives take place on a relatively small scale, they have a much larger footprint and impact when they are looked at together. The course will engage with them both theoretically and with numerous concrete examples and interactive experiences with practitioners. We will also examine various efforts in different cities to cultivate solidarity-based economic alternatives through public-private partnerships and grassroots coalitions. Case studies will be drawn from a variety of countries, though the focus will be on U.S. cities, with a particular emphasis on Philadelphia. This course will be taught in Philadelphia as part of the Tri-Co Philly Program.
Key themes will include: capitalism and post-capitalism, diverse economies, gentrification, public vs. private, geographies of inequality, mapping economic alternatives, informal moral economies, community gardens, DIY, and cooperatives.
Philadelphia and the 2024 Election (SOCI 056)
Daniel Laurison, SC
Monday, 12:00–3:00 p.m.
This course will cover, as the title suggests, the role of people and political organizations in Philadelphia in the 2024 Election as it is happening. We will work together to understand how people understand politics, and how political campaigns, PACs, and non-profit organizations work to persuade and mobilize potential voters.
We will use the 2024 elections as a case study for understanding some of the most pressing issues in American democracy: the stark inequality in political participation, the sense many people have that electoral politics doesn’t represent them, and the ways in which the rules & structure of our electoral system skew representation towards those with more resources. In the first third of the course, we will read existing studies of political behavior with a particular focus on the role of class and race in shaping how people relate to politics. In the middle third, we will read work on how political elites and institutions affect and respond to political participation. In both these sections of class, scholarly readings will be paired with following news and polling about the Presidential and other elections in Pennsylvania and Philadelphia. We will discuss the extent to which these accounts reflect (or ignore) social scientific understandings of how elections work. The last third of the semester will have a lighter reading load in order to allow time to focus on our research project; we will read about research methods and continue deepening our understanding of the social science on elections.
We will be embarking on a collective research project over the course of the semester to better understand how political messaging and campaign-related organizing and canvassing affect the ways regular people (i.e., non-elite/poor and working-class people) make sense of and engage with politics. Every member of the class will be part of recruiting for, organizing, and conducting focus groups with people in communities across Philadelphia, as well as analyzing and reporting on our results.
The course will give students both a broad understanding of the social science of campaigns, elections and voting behavior as well as a hands-on sense of how these dynamics are playing out in 2024 in Philadelphia. Assignments will include weekly reading reflection papers and a final paper based on our collaborative research. This course will be taught in Philadelphia as part of the Tri-Co Philly Program.
Spring 2024 Courses
(program students choose two of three courses)
Literature in and of Philadelphia, 1682-1865 (ENGL B307)
Bethany Schneider, BMC
Tuesday, 12:10–3:00 p.m.
Love and freedom are words that constantly intertwine in the literatures of Philadelphia’s self-fashioning. Known, of course, as the City of Brotherly Love, William Penn’s projected utopia of religious freedom was, before the Civil War, the hotbed of political, racial, cultural and sexual revolution. The city where, in the shadow of plague and rising racism, the first non-violent Civil Rights protests took place and where Black Americans forged a literature of both freedom and beloved community. A city where, under lenient Quaker law, marriage laws allowed for greater sexual freedom than elsewhere in the country, where women were better educated than anywhere else in the world, and where experiments in gender equality and indeed, gender diversity, were able to proceed in relative peace. In this course, and in the city itself, we will examine literature written in and about Philadelphia before the Civil War, exploring how and why Philadelphians engaged questions of love, freedom and non-freedom. This course will be taught in Philadelphia as part of the Tri-Co Philly Program and make use of the city’s archives, museums and historical sites.
History & Politics of Punishment: The School to Prison Pipeline (POLS 20E)
Keith Reeves, SC
Wednesday, 12:00–3:00 p.m.
This inter-disciplinary upper-level seminar will explore the complex school policies, teacher instructional decisions, as well as historical, political, social, economic, cultural, and structural forces that have given rise to documented reality of the “school-to-prison pipeline.” More specifically, what policies and practices within a school’s learning environment push students out of the education system and into the juvenile and adult criminal legal systems? Why do the consequences fall so heavily and disproportionately on minority and low-income students? What is the impact on childhood and learning “joy?” What is the role of law enforcement? Are there other stakeholders whose involvement exacerbates the school-to-prison pipeline? What is the impact on family structure, upward mobility, and neighborhood stability? And finally, what can educators and other stakeholders do to prevent and disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline?
Over the course of the semester, we will be joined by several key stakeholders (i.e., teachers and school administrators, prosecutors, judges, and law enforcement personnel; take a tour of one of the local Philadelphia jails; and visit Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site).
University City: Race, Power and Politics in Philadelphia (PEAC H327)
Dennis Hogan, HC & Andy Hines, SC
Thursday 12:30–3:00 p.m.
For over twenty years, the largest private employer in Philadelphia has been the University of Pennsylvania and its hospital system. In fact, three of the top five largest employers are universities and their affiliated medical centers; Thomas Jefferson University and Temple University also make the cut. Including these institutions, there are fifty-five colleges and universities of varying size, shape, and public/private status in Philadelphia. How did it come to be that universities have taken on such a large political and economic role in not just Philadelphia, but many American cities that otherwise share little in common? This class aims to trace the history of higher education and its ongoing impact on the geography, economy, and culture of greater Philadelphia and U.S. urban space broadly. Practically, this means an attention to the urban landscape; social, cultural, and political movements that emerge from these institutions; and how non-profit institutions relate to government at every level. These wide aims require an interdisciplinary approach drawing on work in critical university studies, cultural studies, political and economic theory, history, urban studies, and critical theory.
Students will write papers that engage their relationship to the force of higher education in American cities and that generate historical and cultural investigations of how major institutions impact urban life in Philadelphia. In addition, students will develop creative/critical public projects in myriad formats (video, paper, podcast, historical marker, etc.) that interpret and mark the place of these institutions in Philadelphia while attending to the complexity of university-based community engagement projects. This class will be taught in Philadelphia as part of the Tri-Co Philly Program.
Fall 2023 Courses
(program students choose two of three courses)
Philadelphia has the largest number of public artworks in the country, and it is also the first city in the nation to require that developers use a portion of their construction project for public art. Philadelphia is also a city of unique historical significance with many historical sites and memorials. In this course, we will take advantage of Philadelphia’s rich history and public art resources as we consider a number of philosophical questions about the nature of public art, political aesthetics, historical preservation, and the ethics of commemoration. Some of the questions we will consider include the following: What is public art? What is public space? What is the role of public art in a democracy? Does the fact that something is historically significant give us a reason to preserve it? Which historically significant things should we preserve and why? What is the moral value of commemorative art? How should we assess controversies surrounding the removal of art honoring persons or groups we now judge to be morally objectionable? How best should we memorialize victims of injustice?
We will approach the philosophical questions at the heart of this course using contemporary philosophical texts and case studies drawn from the public artwork and historic sites in Philadelphia. We will visit specific sites as well as community organizations devoted to public art and historical preservation. This course will be taught in Philadelphia as part of the Tri-Co Philly Program.
Epidemic City: Philadelphia from Yellow Fever to COVID-19 (HLTH H216)
Nicholas Bonneau, HC
Wednesday, 12:30 p.m.–3 p.m.
Epidemics have long been fundamental forces shaping the experience of urban life in the United States; as such, they represent powerful lenses through which to explore pressing questions at the intersection of health and disease, urban politics and design, and the social and communal fabric of urban life. This course will examine the history of epidemic disease in American cities, with a focus on Philadelphia. Students will examine how Philadelphia and other American cities have responded to epidemic disease throughout history, and, in turn, how epidemic diseases have shaped urban space and urban life, considering such questions as: How have epidemics shaped residents’ experiences of their cities, neighborhoods, and communities? How have epidemics shaped—and been shaped by—racial, class, and gender inequalities? How have evolving medical ideas—from miasma theory to the bacteriological revolution—shaped cities’ responses to health crises? How has epidemic disease impacted urban architecture, infrastructure, and design? How have responses to epidemics led to the stigmatization of marginalized and immigrant communities, or to the pathologization of disfavored urban spaces? How have urban public health agencies, health activists, and community organizations shaped urban responses to epidemics?
The course will be organized around a series of historical case studies of epidemic disease in Philadelphia and other American cities. Each unit will also provide students with an opportunity to meaningfully engage with historical sites and institutions in Philadelphia, or with invited speakers and experts. Case studies may include the yellow fever epidemics of the 1790s; cholera, typhoid, and other “filth” diseases in the nineteenth century; polio and influenza in the early twentieth century; HIV/AIDS; and COVID-19. Site visits will include locations such as the Philadelphia Lazaretto, the American Philosophical Society Library, and the Mütter Museum of the College of Physicians. This course will be taught in Philadelphia as part of the Tri-Co Philly Program.
Environmental Justice: Ethnography, Politics, Action/Philadelphia (ENVS 035/SOAN 035)
Giovanna Di Chiro, SC
Tuesday, 12:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m.
An introduction to the history and theory of environmental justice, an interdisciplinary field that examines how inequalities based on race, class, ethnicity, and gender shape how different groups of people are impacted by environmental problems and how they advocate for social and environmental change. This semester the course will be taught at the Philadelphia Friends Center and will concentrate on urban environmental justice issues and creative strategies for change in Philadelphia. Drawing on the work of scholars and activists from a wide variety of disciplines in the social sciences, natural sciences, and the arts & humanities, we critically examine the conceptual divisions between “nature and society,” “urban and rural,” and the “community and the planet.” We will analyze the history of the widely used concept of “sustainability” focusing on the diverse ways it has been embraced, transformed, and implemented in different cultural and urban contexts. We will investigate some of the challenges facing cities like Philadelphia as they implement sustainability initiatives and try to avoid “green gentrification” (sustainability improvements such as green buildings, eco-parks, and upscale farmers’ markets that increase property values, pricing out and displacing local, low-income residents). We will likewise explore the promise of urban areas as important centers for supporting the flourishing of diverse, equitable, and ecologically sustainable communities. Course incorporates a community-based learning component.
Spring 2023
Core Course
Popular Music and Media (GMST 026/FMST 026/LITR 026/MUSI 005E)
Sunka Simon & James Blasina, SC
Wednesday 12:00–3:00 p.m. and Friday 12:15-3:00 p.m.*
*Friday is an occasional meeting time for program students only.
What do classical music, teenie bop, soul, battle rap, and jazz have in common? Philadelphia. This team-taught interdisciplinary course investigates the histories, structures and cultural connections between popular music and other media in the city of Philadelphia. What links sound, image, and place? How do musical expressions and genres interact with urban life at specific junctures in Philadelphia history? How do modes of production and exhibition formats (radio vs. television, club v.s stadium) along with distribution venues (record store vs. Spotify) engage with genre, gender, and race configurations? What lies at the intersection of regional, national, and global fan cultures? How does celebrity culture then and now impact what is popular and how does it affect Philadelphia’s music industry and vice versa? Providing a grounding in music and media history and theory, we will research and analyze mainstream and independent Philadelphia-specific case studies in radio, film, theater, television and social media in order to better understand and engage with the complex webs that characterize contemporary media, its production, and its consumption. Student projects will explore the intersections and interactions between individuals, ethnic and racial groups, established and new Philadelphians, city government, region, empire, and nation that have and continue to shape Philadelphia through the music and media created here. This course will be taught in Philadelphia as the core class of the Tri-Co Philly Program.
Elective Courses
Contemporary Art and Film in Philadelphia (HART B380)
Homay King, BMC
Thursday 12:10–3:00 p.m.
This course will explore the vibrant contemporary art world of the city of Philadelphia—a city uniquely positioned to attract artists with its many top-tier fine art schools, world-class museums, affordable living and studio spaces, and thriving network of artist-run galleries and exhibition spaces. Some of our sessions will take the form of seminar discussions with readings in the theory and history of contemporary art and film at the Trico Philly campus, while some will involve visits to local museums, galleries, cinemas, and art institutes, and meetings with arts professionals. We will discuss whether the distinction between film and other forms of lensed, moving imagery on the one hand and contemporary art on the other continues to matter, whether from a conceptual, institutional, or economic perspective. Site visits are subject to change but may include the Philadelphia Academy of Fines Arts, the Institute of Contemporary Art, the Fabric Workshop and Museum, Vox Populi, and BlackStar Film Festival. Prerequisite: prior coursework in the History of Art, Film Studies, and/or Visual Studies. Requirements: strong, active participation in discussions and meetings with guests, final research paper of 8-10 pages. This course will be taught in Philadelphia as part of the Tri-Co Philly Program.
City of Brotherly Love: Images of a Changing City (GERM H210)
Imke Brust, HC
Monday Noon–3:00 p.m.
Generally, the course will engage with the history of Philadelphia as an immigrant city and look at the ways in which the different neighborhoods have changed over time. More specifically, it will highlight aspects of Philadelphia’s early German-speaking community, which made up about 45% of the city’s total residents in 1760 and about 33% in 1800 (Minardi). For example, Germantown, Brewerytown, and Olney were at some point primarily German-speaking neighborhoods, which then became primarily African-American, and in the case of Olney, Asian-American. Our analysis would scrutinize how the city demographically and visually transformed by looking at different maps, images, paintings etc. Furthermore, the course would also explore what attracted the various populations to the city at different historic times. In collaboration with HIAS, StoriesthatLive and Puentes de Salud, we would study how European Jews and Latin-Americans found refuge in the city of brotherly love. Initially, the Pennsylvania German Society of Philadelphia was also created in 1764, to help German speaking immigrants in need. Students will create a short film project about a person, who chose to immigrate to and found home in Philadelphia. Moreover, the course would touch on how the different populations perceived each other at different historic moments. For example, German speaking people often took on a mediating role between Native Americans and Anglo-Saxons in the early years of the United States. Our course materials would consist of a mix of biographical, historical, literary and art material. The course, which will be taught in English, is open to both German and non-German speakers. There will be an extra session in German for students taking it for German credit. This class will be taught in Philadelphia as part of the Tri-Co Philly Program.