last words for the semester...and this blog

This is the last entry for this blog. I have been toying for a year with whether to move all of my entries from several blogs to one space and I think this is the moment when I should go for it. I will blog from my "catalogue" blog under Wordpress. I think that I have a better sense of my readership when I use that site. Also, my entries seem to move to the various search engines faster. What follows is a reprint of today's entry from that blog. Even though I can't dance, and know I'm getting old because my students have to tell me everything that is hip, videos like the one below, which was made totally unsolicited, remind me of some of the things I love about my job: you may not think the students are paying attention, but they are. That the student who made this video wasn't even my student, but heard about heard about what we were doing in my "The Nineteenth Century City" course from others and asked to follow the class all semester, was so cool. I am nervous about sharing because I can't dance, but what the heck. One aside: although I do not fully explain as much in this video, Gunther Barth's "common humanity" thesis, which we take up in "The Nineteenth Century City" course, among other things, refers to how nineteenth century people from very different class, ethnic, racial and national backgrounds find a "common humanity" in urban spaces as they attempt to cope with the pressures of living in such spaces. In his book City People: The Rise of Modern City Culture in Nineteenth Century America, he points to various things that emerged along with urban life in America to explore this point, among them baseball. In cities like New York, he argues, even if you couldn't speak English, you could feel like a New Yorker when you learned to cheer for the same team. The idea here is that although inequities and suffering persist, via spectator sports like baseball, which traces its origins to cities in the second half of the nineteenth century, people participate in a "common humanity" even if it is only for a couple of minutes, or a couple of hours.city people I asked my students to think about this concept and the limits of its utility while doing things they enjoy today like watching or playing football or attempting dances like the Nae Nae (I still don't know how to do that Stanky Leg). The goal was to get them to think about whether this way of adapting allows to see "the nineteenth century city" is still with us (i.e. this way of connecting across our diverse backgrounds even though technology nowadays permits us to do as much even outside of the city. For sure, the Internet and cable television lets people see dances and spectator sports almost anywhere). Chris Edmunds, one of the students in course, created his own video, which addresses Barth's common humanity thesis with more depth. Thanks, Nick Privitera, for your interest in our class. And thank you students - Chris, Lin Kabachia, Morgan Johnson, William Newman, Adam Rosenberg, Chance Sturup, and Sarah Yeilding - for pushing my thinking while I learn with you. Oh, and here is a slideshow of photos from our culminating event for the semester, which was held last week at Gorgas House. Happy Holidays!

student photography offered in a charity silent auction at Dec. 2 event

Get a sneak peek at student photography that will be presented at the December 2 event addressing the experiences of young women and education in an urbanizing America. The photography is part of a silent auction. Proceeds benefit Jemison Mansion and the Tuscaloosa County Preservation Society. Some background: students enrolled in "The Nineteenth Century City," a History course at the University of Alabama, were charged with exploring the ways in which young women pursuing an education figured into an urbanizing world. Throughout the semester, they visited several sites in Tuscaloosa to see buildings, among them Gorgas House, the Drish House, Jemison Mansion, the L & N Railroad Station, the Old Tavern, the Alabama Museum of Natural History, the ruins of the the former Alabama State Capitol building and later, a "female" academy, and other places, among them the Black Warrior River. These sites and others permit us to witness how the "nineteenth century city" is still with us as seen in advancements in technology that made it possible for people, raw materials and products to get from Point A to Point B, but also in how an increasingly wealthy country and global market provided ways for some individuals to participate in leisure activities that also reflected rising industry. The arrival of department stores and professionalization of baseball by the late 19th century serve as examples. The photos represent this query. To see the photos in person, visit UA's Gorgas House 4-5:30 pm December 2, 2015. Our guest speaker is Birmingham Southern University Associate Professor of History Victora Ott. Her talk is titled "A Safe Place to Hide?: The Role of Female Academies in the Confederate South." There will also be a poster display unveiling primary sources the students studied as well as a chronological history of local colleges that young women attended, among them Sims Female Academy, Alabama Female Academy, Alabama Female Athenaeum, Tuskaloosa Female College, Alabama Central Female College, Hills Female College and UA, which opened its doors to women in 1893.

slideshow of images from "Druid City: A Music Video" Premiere at Jemison Mansion

Here's a slideshow of photos from our December 3, 2014 premiere of "Druid City: A Music Video" featuring the music of local band Bible Study. Special thanks to Courtnee "Voni" Cook, a student enrolled in "The Nineteenth Century City" during the Fall 2014, for sharing these photos with us.

Druid City...the actual video (finally!)

Finally. Here's the music video of the short doc/music video that premiered last night at Jemison Mansion. Special thanks to everyone who made the event a great one.  Steve Davis, Bryce Hospital Historian, was among the guests. One aside: I stopped by Jemison this morning to pick up the student photographs offered in the silent auction and was happy to visit the Tuscaloosa County Preservation Society, which is on the bottom floor. Katherine Richter, Director of TCPS, shared numerous photos and maps of old Tuscaloosa with me. I already know what I want next year's The Nineteenth Century City class to document (visually or otherwise): the history of women in education here in Tuscaloosa! Speaking of which, stay tuned here for photographs of the images I took this morning while hanging out with Katherine. What a great week. Thanks, Tim Higgins (and Ian Crawford) of Jemison, for everything.

Student radio and newspaper interviews went well; but before all that Bryce historian enlightens

Jess Leonard, Voni Cook and Emily Chadwell on air on 90.7 today.

Crimson & White writer Nick Privatera, far right, listens during his interview.

The class poses with the music video poster before the 90.7 radio interview.

Today was one of those days a professor could only dream of. The students really made me proud as they shared their experiences in this course with 90.7, The Voice, a University of Alabama radio program, and next, with a contributing writer for the Crimson & Tide, the University's school newspaper. All this after Steve Davis, Bryce Hospital historian, did a wonderful lecture on that historic facility, which is currently being restored. Thank you, Mr. Davis, for visiting our class today.

And thank you, Rich Robinson for inviting us to be on the air (tweet #druidcityshow, everyone!) Thanks also to Nick Privatera for not being entirely overwhelmed as you interviewed us. Please, everyone, come out and support the "world premiere" of our music video with music by Bible Study at 5:30-6:30 pm December 3 at Jemison Mansion, 1305 Greensboro Ave. Dr. Robert Mellown, Associate Professor Emeritus of Art History, will be our guest speaker and Davis has promised to try to make it as well. Meanwhile, Roll Tide!