Bryn Mawr Stories

Philadelphia Elfreth's Alley

Tri-Co Philly: Philadelphia: Inventing a City

Spring 2019

From its patricians to its philistines, the course explores Philadelphia through a roster of writers, journalists, civic scribes, Quaker legerdemain, and pamphleteers who charted a number of cultural transformations. 

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Philadelphia Pine Street Trees

Tri-Co Philly: Environmental Justice: Ethnography, Politics, Action/Philadelphia

Fall 2023

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.

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Philadelphia Street

Tri-Co Philly: Grassroots Economies: Creating Livelihoods in an Age of Urban Inequality

Spring 2020

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.

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Philadelphia Tri-Co Philly Reading Terminal

Tri-Co Philly: Food Cultures in Philadelphia

Fall 2024

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.

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 Philadelphia skyline from helipad-3181

Tri-Co Philly: Power and Politics in Philadelphia

Spring 2022

We will explore who wins and who loses in the political arena through a series of case studies of key policy issues that are highly salient to the people of Philadelphia, including criminal justice reform, immigrants’ rights, gentrification and affordable housing, urban development, and workforce diversity.

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Philadelphia University City

Tri-Co Philly: The Politics of the Creative Class in American Cities 

Spring 2019

Explore the social, economic, and political impacts associated with the sizeable influx of college graduates into many urban areas during the past decade.

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Philadelphia City Hall William Penn

Tri-Co Philly: Literature in and of Philadelphia, 1682-1865

Spring 2024

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.

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Philadelphia Benjamin Franklin Parkway

Tri-Co Philly: The Philadelphia Mosaic: Immigrant Communities in the City

Spring 2020

This course explores the experiences and city-making strategies of immigrant communities in the Greater Philadelphia Area from roughly the late 19th century to the present day.

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Philadelphia Bridge

Tri-Co Philly: Grassroots Economies: Creating Livelihoods in an Age of Urban Inequality

Fall 2024

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.

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Philadelphia Fountain

Tri-Co Philly: History of Philadelphia Architecture and Urbanism

Spring 2022

This course explores Philadelphia’s architectural and urban evolution over five centuries.

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Philadelphia Traffic

Tri-Co Philly: Narrativity and Hip Hop

Spring 2019

This course explores narrative and poetic forms and themes in hip-hop culture.

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 Philadelphia skyline from helipad-3181

Tri-Co Philly: History & Politics of Punishment: The School to Prison Pipeline

Spring 2024

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.”

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