Bryant Simon
director of the American Studies
program at Temple University

I became the director of American Studies at Temple in fall of 2006.  My hope is to turn the program into a hub for interdisciplinary and imaginative thinking.  To make this happen, I want to assemble a creative group of scholars and students to think about American culture and society.  Please contact me with your suggestions and ideas.  My office hours for the fall semester are Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1-2PM or by appointment. 

I can be reached at 215-204-1644 or 215-204-2429, or brysimon@temple.edu

About my scholarship:

Bryant Simon is professor of history and director of the American Studies program at Temple University in Philadelphia . Over the last year and half, he has visited over 300 Starbucks in eight countries and is currently working on a book to be published by Bloomsbury . This is not, however, just a study of Starbucks, but an exploration of American life both in the states and abroad in the 21st Century. His research explores the very desires of daily life as they are revealed on the comfy coaches and in the drive-thru of Starbucks. As he looks at what it means to consume Starbucks, he also investigates what Starbucks consumes of us - our labor, our landscapes, and our politics.

He is the author of A Fabric of Defeat: The Politics of South Carolina Textile Workers, 1910-1948 (1998) and Boardwalk of Dreams: Atlantic City and the Fate of Urban America (2004) as well as the Jumpin' Jim Crow': Southern Politics from Civil War to Civil Rights (2000). His research on Atlantic City has earned awards from the Organization of American Historians, Urban History Association, and the New Jersey Historical Commission.

For more on my Starbucks research:

From the New Yorker

Podcast

On Atlantic City:

Leonard Lopate show (WNYC)