Time to Press the Clutch and Shift Gears

Ok, so the title of this post was cheesy but most of my titles have been cheesy. The summer has ended, I've concluded my internship and I'm back to school. Life, and my blog, will be shifting gears. While I still plan to use my blog as a vehicle for my musings about urban space, it will mainly be devoted to my Introduction to Public History course. In essence, this will be my first post for class and it's an introduction to my classmates. I have to admit this will be a bit strange, an introduction eight posts into the life of my blog? Oh well. We do what we've got to do. So here it goes.

My name is Javier Garcia and I am a second-year MA student in the Public History program here at Temple University. My research interests are in twentieth-century American urban history. Specifically, I am interested in how cities and neighborhoods have developed. My MA thesis will be about the proposed Crosstown Expressway which was to be built along South Street here in Philadelphia.

I graduated with my BA from Haverford College in the Growth & Structure of Cities program. The interdisciplinary nature of the department has greatly influenced my graduate work. My undergraduate work in Architecture and Urban Planning are still present in my non-traditional path through Public History. While most students traditionally take archives and manuscript courses, my supplemental coursework has been in the Community and Regional Planning department at Temple. While I haven't set my sights on a specific career, I hope to do work which can fuse my interest in Public History and Urban Planning.