As a part of our Seminar In Global Processes: The Global City, we delve into the creation and functioning of cities around the world, while focusing on the locus of our study - New York City. We live and breathe the city every day as we take the subway to work, grab a coffee at the closest Deli or try and figure out why the Walgreens is called Duane Reade here!
Although we work on different schedules throughout the week, every Wednesday we make a trip to a contemporary or historical NYC landmark with Professors Chambliss and Morgan. Last week, we visited the Morgan Library and Museum where we got to explore the intricacies of Pierpont Morgan’s personal collection of rare books and artworks. With architecture reminiscent of a 16th-century Roman structure and interior decorations illustrating beloved literary and historical figures, we took an hour-long journey to what seemed like the inside of a church in Rome, Italy.
The same day, we came back to NYC with the Germ City exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York. This excursion was motivated by its correlation to our Global City seminar. We had been reading about the Cholera and Typhus Epidemic in New York in 1832, so the exhibit gave us an in-depth look at the medical history of the city and the consequences of such a tragedy.
As a biology professor, Professor Morgan has taught various classes on diseases and germ history. She gave us a tour of her personal collection of rare photographs by Jacob Riis of the tenements on the Lower East Side in the 1800s. These moving photos helped us understand the sociological magnitude of this period in New York history.
