The Official Blog of the Urban History Association
By Erika Denise Edwards The recent explosion of black studies in Argentina has been a welcoming effort of various scholars and activists that have refused to accept the old and tired categorization that Argentina is a country of European descendants.[1] For instance, most recently activists challenged Argentine president Mauricio Macri’s association between Mercosur and the […]
Read MoreJoseph Watson Ph.D. Candidate in the History and Theory of Architecture University of Pennsylvania School of Design Describe your current research. What about it drew your interest? I am currently wrapping up my dissertation. It’s a study of competing ideas about the future of metropolitan America during the 1930s. I focus primarily on two architectural projects, […]
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The Metropole/Urban History Association Graduate Student Blogging Contest exists to encourage and train graduate students to blog about history—as a way to teach beyond the classroom, market their scholarship, and promote the enduring value of the humanities. The summer’s blogging contest theme is “Striking Gold.” With golden rays of summer sunshine in our near future, […]
Read MoreKim Phillips-Fein Associate Professor Gallatin School of Individualized Study and History Department, College of Arts and Sciences New York University Describe your current research. What about it drew your interest? I’m actually between major research projects now, which is a nice though sometimes anxiety-provoking place to be! I have been thinking about a lot of […]
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By Daniel Richter Buenos Aires and Montevideo, the capitals of Argentina and Uruguay, are located approximately 120 miles away from each other across the Río de la Plata. Over the decade from 2003 to 2013, I traveled by boat between Argentina and Uruguay approximately 20 times while living in the two cities for an aggregate […]
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In this, our first book review in a new series edited by Jim Wunsch, UHA President Richard Harris tackles an epic historiograpical effort by Alan Mayne. Alan Mayne, Slums. The History of a Global Injustice. London: Reaktion, 2017. 360 pp. notes, index. ISBN 978 1 78023 809 8 More than ever, we need broad syntheses […]
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How many times have the city, its architecture, and the theatre been intertwined, for the theatre is often a foil for the representations of public life, and public space frequently is arranged as if for a theatrical performance. Both the theatre and urban space are places of representation, assemblage, and exchange between actors and spectators, […]
Read MoreMason Williams Assistant Professor of Leadership Studies and Political Science Williams College @masonbwilliams Describe your current research. What about it drew your interest? I’m writing a book about how New York City rebuilt its public institutions in the wake of the 1975 Fiscal Crisis—looking especially at schools, policing, and public space. The era of New […]
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By Yovanna Pineda On a casual stroll through Buenos Aires City, the pedestrian’s eyes can follow the public spaces lined with colorful graffiti. Though the latter is illegal, it is socially accepted, and for some urban residents and tourists it is even valued. Indeed, they locate their graffiti, including name tags, screen printing, and murals, […]
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By Matthew Guariglia During the Progressive Era, there were parts of New York City that police understood as being immune to the exertions of state power. These areas could be rendered illegible and uncontrollable for a number of reasons. In some instances, as I have discussed on The Metropole before, the foreignness of immigrant populations, […]
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