Digital Summer School: Detroit and Voices from the Grassroots

By Peter Blackmer Editor’s note: This is the third post in our annual Digital Summer School for 2025, where we highlight projects in the digital humanities. You can read other posts in the series here. In early 2013, Michigan governor Rick Snyder declared a financial emergency in Detroit, which gave him the power under a […]

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MacArthur Park’s History of Surveillance, Refusal, and Radical Care

Editor’s note: In anticipation of what we all believe will be a stellar UHA conference this October 9-12 in Los Angeles, we are featuring Los Angeles as our theme this month. This is our sixth and final post; you can see others from this month as well as past pieces on the city here. In […]

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The World Darryl Gates Made: Race, Policing, and the Birth of SWAT

Editor’s note: In anticipation of what we all believe will be a stellar UHA conference this October 9-12 in Los Angeles, we are featuring Los Angeles as our theme this month. This is our second post; you can see others from this month as they are published as well as past pieces on the city […]

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London as Ocean: The Origins and Meanings of an Urban Metaphor

Editor’s note: This is the eighth post in our theme for April 2025, The City Aquatic. For additional entries in the series, see here By Christopher Ferguson In October 2015, “Ann C” of Grantham posted a review on Tripadvisor in which she praised Earl’s Sandwiches in Covent Garden as a “Pearl in the Ocean of […]

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City Afloat: Rethinking the “Other” Side of Canton, 1757-1949

Editor’s note: This is the sixth post in our theme for April 2025, The City Aquatic. For additional entries in the series, see here. By Qingyun Lin There is no spectacle in the world more wonderful to a stranger’s eyes than the river population of the Celestial Empire.[1]—Osmond Tiffany (1823-1895) In May 1844, Osmond Tiffany—a […]

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The Tides: Maluku’s Untold Stories

Editor’s note: This is the fifth post in our theme for April 2025, The City Aquatic. For additional entries in the series, see here. By Fendy Tulodo In the vast archipelago of Indonesia, Maluku stands as a region shaped by both its turbulent history and its deep connection to the sea. Once the epicenter of […]

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Forgotten Urban Currents: The Role of Subterranean Rivers in Shaping Modern Cities

Editor’s note: This is the second post in our theme for April 2025, The City Aquatic. For additional entries in the series, see here. By AN In cities across the world, rivers once central to daily life now flow unseen beneath layers of concrete and asphalt. These subterranean rivers–natural waterways that have been buried, diverted, […]

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