Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere

Adrienne deNoyelles, 2017-18 Rothman Doctoral Fellow (Dept. of History)
Matthew Simmons, 2017-18 Rothman Doctoral Fellow (Dept. of History)
Thursday, 18 January – 4:00pm-5:00pm, Grinter Hall 471 (Center for African Studies Conference Room)
The “Lung Block”: Tuberculosis and Contested Spaces in Progressive-Era New York
Adrienne deNoyelles, Department of History

Adrienne deNoyelles’ dissertation examines a 1903 reform crusade to demolish New York’s “Lung Block”—a tenement neighborhood riddled with tuberculosis—in favor of a park. The crusade, and its eventual failure, illuminate the cultural tensions that often distanced urban reformers from the marginalized populations they intended to help. While park advocates based their arguments on scientific method and long-range planning, local politicians and religious leaders decried the project’s potential impact to thousands of working-class immigrants already occupying that space. The resulting conflict promotes an alternate view of reformers’ public-improvement efforts as intrusive, unwelcome, and ultimately detrimental to urban ethnic communities.

Radical Traditions of Resistance in the Old Southwest and the Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union
Matthew Simmons, Department of History

A movement of poor farmers erupted in rebellion in the Arkansas Delta during the 1930s in response to New Deal agricultural policy which privileged large landowners over tenant farmers and sharecroppers. Yet this revolt was not an aberration or merely a blip on the historical radar. Rather, it was part of a long tradition of agrarian insurgency in the Old Southwest. The STFU drew on the insights, tactics, and membership of earlier movements like the socialist movement and unions such as the Progressive Farmers’ and Household Union to challenge the class and race-based social hierarchy in the rural South.

This event is part of the 2017-18 UF Synergies: Current Scholarship in the Humanities series, which features informal talks by the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere’s Rothman Faculty Summer Fellows, Tedder Doctoral Fellows, and Rothman Doctoral Fellows. Fellows will each speak for 20 minutes about their funded work, leaving ample time for questions and discussion amongst the projects.

This event is free and open to the public.
Click for more information on becoming a Rothman Faculty Summer Fellow, a Tedder Family Doctoral Fellow.
For more information on this event, contact humanities-center@ufl.edu. You can also find this event on Facebook!
See more information on this series.