The Mega Ode, Volume 2
To conclude our 2022 Month of Academic Odes, we solicited these appreciations from, and of, our community.
Read MoreMonth: February 2022
An Ode to the Afro-American Patrolmen’s League Collection
By Julius L. Jones The history of African Americans on the Chicago Police Department (CPD) begins in 1871. The same year the Great Chicago Fire destroyed approximately three-and-a-half square miles of the city, leaving 100,000 people unhoused, James L. Shelton was appointed the first African American member of CPD. Since then, African Americans have served […]
Read MoreMember of the Week: Andra Chastain
Andra Chastain, PhD Assistant Professor of History Washington State University, Vancouver Describe your current research. What about it drew your interest? I’m currently revising my book manuscript, which is a history of the metro system in Santiago, Chile. This project sparked my interest because its history crosses several key political divides in Chile’s history: it […]
Read MoreHardcore Urban Renewal: The Punk Origins of the City Creative
The Metropole Bookshelf is an opportunity for authors of forthcoming or recently published books to let the UHA community know about their new work in the field. By Michael Carriere and David Schalliol The roots of The City Creative: The Rise of Urban Placemaking in Contemporary America (The University of Chicago Press, 2021) are not […]
Read MoreAn Ode to Bus No. 60 and to Public Transportation in Madrid
By Inbal Ofer As a social historian I have always found public services to be a fascinating domain of research. They are a meeting point between theories of progress and the practicality of everyday life, and between the aspirations of professionals, the dictates of national, regional and local bureaucracies, and the needs of different users. […]
Read MoreMember of the Week: Debjani Bhattacharyya
Debjani Bhattacharyya, PhD Professor and Chair for the History of the Anthropocene Department of History, University of Zürich Twitter: @itihaashtag Describe your current research. What about it drew your interest? I am currently working on a project tentatively titled “Climate Futures’ Past: Law and Weather Science in the Indian Ocean World.” Ranging from the eighteenth […]
Read MoreMember of the Week: Dave Hochfelder
David Hochfelder, PhD Associate Professor History Department, University at Albany, SUNY Describe your current research. What about it drew your interest? My current research is on the history of urban renewal, in particular, a public/digital history of urban renewal in New York State we’re calling Picturing Urban Renewal. I and my two colleagues, Ann Pfau and […]
Read MoreAn Ode to the Humble Bus
By Rob Gioielli If you are an urbanist that studies or teaches transportation history, you’ve probably heard some version of the following at a party or from a student after class: “You know, General Motors destroyed the streetcar,” the person will tell you, often in a hushed, conspiratorial tone. “Bought all of them up and […]
Read MoreNew York of the Future – Science Fiction Writers and The City
By Carl Abbott New Yorkers have gumption. They’ve got moxie. They don’t slow down and they don’t take crap from anyone. They’re also survivors who can sometimes figure out how to work together for the common good. That’s the shared message of two compelling and very different books by science fiction stars: N. K. Jemisin’s The […]
Read MoreAn Ode to Saying No
By Avigail Oren We are reprising our Month of Academic Odes on the The Metropole because, as it turns out, winter 2021 was not the hoped-for end of the pandemic. Here we are, in February 2022, with all the more reason to embrace the positive (as long as it isn’t on a COVID test). Last […]
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