History 223: TRASHED! A History of Garbage in the Modern World

In September students in History 223 got their hands dirty examining refuse on the Diag. Instructor Anne Berg described the course as a history of garbage since the middle of the nineteenth century: "We will trace how garbage — the actual stuff that humans discard—has changed along with methods of production, distribution and consumption. ... Most importantly, we explore how trash connects and divides people in different parts of an expanding and constricting world."

Students were warned that they would be exploring the materiality of garbage fisthand: "We will touch stuff, ask people, and go places," the course description concludes.

Photos by Gregory Parker.

History 328: Detroit: Race, Religion, and Ethnicity in the 20th Century

Professor Deborah Dash Moore described her History 328 course, which she is teaching with Marian Krzyzowski, as an examination of the "rich and complex history of Detroit’s racial, religious, and ethnic conflict, competition, and cooperation during the twentieth century."

History 328 includes a tour of Detroit; some of the highlights are featured below.

Photos by Marian Krzyzowski.

In Mexicantown, the students posed in front of a Victor Quiñonez (aka Marka27) mural.
The class dined at the Ivanhoe Cafe (aka Polish Yacht Club) in Detroit, which has been at this location since 1909 and has remained in the same family since then.
The class toured the original Jewish neighborhood in the Hastings Street-Brush Park area, stopping at the Tushiyah United Hebrew Schools Building. It was built in 1922 and closed as a supplementary Hebrew school in 1929. It has been converted into condominiums.
The class met Rev. Kenneth Davis and toured New Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church, located in the old B’nai David Synagogue building at Elmhurst and 14th in Detroit. The church moved into this location in the 1960s from its original spot on the east side of the city.