American Studies 2900 -- MWF, 12:00-12:50

Instructor:  Bryant Simon

Course Title -- Soul and the City -- Studying and Remembering the Uptown Theater (just north of Temple on Broad)

Course Description:

This course will explore the history of the Uptown Theater and the North Philadelphia neighborhood just north of Temple University that surrounded the music hall.  This will not be, however, a simple or nostalgic journey down memory lane.  It will dig deep into the history of the Uptown Theater to help students better understand the complex processes and interactions of urban change and the shifting geographies and meanings of race and popular culture in postwar America.  Students will learn about the close connections between music and society, art and commerce.  At the same time, they will explore the processes and politics of recovering of the past and reconstructing living histories out of the rumble and silences of yesterday. That is because, in addition, to being an interdisciplinary study of the city and popular culture, this course will serve as in introduction to public history – the ideas and issues of preserving the past to use and understand in the present.