Courses
Explore Tri-Co Philly course offerings.
Students enroll in two Philadelphia-focused courses from different disciplines taught by Tri-Co faculty in Philadelphia.
This class investigates the unique history of housing in Philadelphia. We will cover the problems the city has faced and still faces in providing affordable housing, fair access to housing and creating diverse and vibrant neighborhoods and its great legacy of innovation in this area.
Tri-Co Philly: Access to Finance: Why Low-Income Households and Small Businesses in the US lack the financial products they need - a Philly Perspective
This course aims to look at the importance of access to finance to small businesses and low and moderate income households, identifies how and why this access is lacking and examines efforts to address this issues.
Drawing on the music side of the previously taught Popular Music & Media course, this course will investigate the history and contemporary conditions of music making in Philadelphia and its region.
This course will explore the deep history of dining in Philadelphia, from Lenape foodways to the skills of Hercules Posey George Washingtons enslaved chef to the recent participation of Philadelphia cooks and restaurateurs in social justice movements.
Tri-Co Philly: Grassroots Economies: Creating Livelihoods in an Age of Urban Inequality
The aim of the course would be to examine the political and economic constraints generated by poverty and racial and class segregation in contemporary urban environments and how grassroots economic initiatives rooted in mutual aid often fill the gaps and provide alternative ways to meet needs and generate supportive community.
This course will cover, as the title suggests, the role of people and political organizations in Philadelphia in the 2024 Election as it is happening. We will work together to understand how people understand politics, and how political campaigns, PACs, and non-profit organizations work to persuade and mobilize potential voters.
Spring 2024
Tri-Co Philly: History & Politics of Punishment: The School to Prison Pipeline
This inter-disciplinary upper-level seminar will explore the complex school policies, teacher instructional decisions, as well as historical, political, social, economic, cultural, and structural forces that have given rise to documented reality of the school-to-prison pipeline.
Fall 2023
Tri-Co Philly: Public Art, Historical Preservation and the Ethics of Commemoration
What is public art? What is public space? What is the role of public art in a democracy? Does the fact that something is historically significant give us a reason to preserve it? Which historically significant things should we preserve and why? What is the moral value of commemorative art? How should we assess controversies surrounding the removal of art honoring persons or groups we now judge to be morally objectionable? How best should we memorialize victims of injustice?
Tri-Co Philly: Environmental Justice: Ethnography, Politics, Action/Philadelphia
An introduction to the history and theory of environmental justice, an interdisciplinary field that examines how inequalities based on race, class, ethnicity, and gender shape how different groups of people are impacted by environmental problems and how they advocate for social and environmental change.
Spring 2023
Tri-Co Philly: Contemporary Art and Film in Philadelphia
This course will explore the vibrant contemporary art world of the city of Philadelphiaa city uniquely positioned to attract artists with its many top-tier fine art schools, world-class museums, affordable living and studio spaces, and thriving network of artist-run galleries and exhibition spaces.
Fall 2022
Tri-Co Philly: A Sociological Journey to Immigrant Communities in Philadelphia
This course will use the lenses of sociology to critically and comparatively examine various immigrant communities that historically, economically, politically, and socially have shaped the city of Philadelphia.
Spring 2022
Tri-Co Philly: Power and Politics in Philadelphia
We will explore who wins and who loses in the political arena through a series of case studies of key policy issues that are highly salient to the people of Philadelphia, including criminal justice reform, immigrants rights, gentrification and affordable housing, urban development, and workforce diversity.
Fall 2021
Fall 2020
Tri-Co Philly: Race and Place: A Philadelphia Story
Using Philadelphia neighborhoods as our site of study, this course will analyze the relationship between race/ethnicity and spatial inequality, emphasizing the institutions, processes, and mechanisms that shape the lives of urban dwellers.
Tri-Co Philly: Grassroots Economies: Creating Livelihoods in an Age of Urban Inequality
The aim of the course would be to examine the political and economic constraints generated by poverty and racial and class segregation in contemporary urban environments and how grassroots economic initiatives rooted in mutual aid often fill the gaps and provide alternative ways to meet needs and generate supportive community.
Spring 2020
Tri-Co Philly: Philadelphias Opioid Crisis: Causes, Consequences, and Interventions Community Engagement and Social Responsibility
This course will draw on direct student engagement and the experience of community partnersincluding medical practitioners, harm reduction activists, politicians, journalists, people who use drugs, and affected communitiesto interrogate the causes and consequences of drug overdose.
Fall 2019
Tri-Co Philly: Environmental Justice: Theory and Action
An introduction to the history and theory of environmental justice, an interdisciplinary field that examines how inequalities based on race, class, ethnicity, and gender shape how different groups of people are impacted by environmental problems and how they advocate for social and environmental change.
Spring 2019
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Contact Us
Tri-Co Philly
Calista Cleary
Tri-Co Philly Program Director
610-795-1576
ccleary@brynmawr.edu