The Gotham Center for New York City History is pleased to invite scholars and students of 20th century New York City history to participate in an ongoing research seminar starting in Spring 2015. Once a month, researchers working in the broad field of 20th century New York City history will get a chance to meet and present work in progress for discussion and commentary in an interdisciplinary group whose members all share similar research interests.
20th century New York City history is an exciting and lively field, studied today from numerous perspectives at several campuses in the city and beyond. The purpose of the seminar is to bring together people working on any aspect of this field, and through that help to foster new outlooks and promote intellectual exchange across faculty and disciplinary lines. It is our belief that getting together like this – for fun and mutual enlightenment – can help broaden the horizons of the field and help move it forward into uncharted scholarly territory. Seminar participants are invited to take part in this process either by presenting their own work to fellow New York-focused researchers or by bringing a constructively critical eye to others’ scholarship.
In spring 2016, we will co-host three seminars with the New York Public Library, all of which will take place between six and eight PM on the assigned days:
- On March 29, Elizabeth Macaulay-Lewis will present a work in progress from her project about the reception of ancient architecture in the “private” sphere.
- On April 19, Jon-Christian Suggs will present a draft of part of his upcoming book, tentatively titled “Metropolitan: Hannah Elias and the Murder of the Man Who Invented New York.”
- And finally, on May 17, Aaron Gurwitz will present a part of his current project, an economic history of New York City, which deals with “catastrophic agglomeration” in the 1840s.
If you are interested in participating in the seminar, please contact Gotham Center Visiting Research Scholar Martin Lund (martin.lund@lnu.se) and let him know so he can add you to the mailing list. If you would like to present your work in progress at one of these seminars, please make sure to note this in your e-mail.
