Feeding Temple Town: A Digital Project Exploring Food, Politics, and Community in North Philadelphia
Russell Conwell’s experiment to educate the Philadelphian working man has grown into a massive university that has transformed the physical, social, and cultural environment of its surrounding North Philadelphia community. Temple University has carefully designed itself as an “urban university” and its presence and growth has had significant costs. Displacement, gentrification, and urban renewal projects have altered the neighborhood to make way for Temple. The relationship between university administration, students and faculty, and community members is negotiated through different avenues, one of which is through food. Food reflects class, culture, gender, labor, urbanization, and it acts as a unique lens into the negative and positive aspects of the new cultural landscape Temple has crafted. The stories shared in this project seek to highlight the hidden narratives that contribute to more visible events. It uncovers hidden labor, the importance of space, and the voices of protest. From the early stages of university development in the 1880s and heavier community presence to the modern-day food trucks, looking at the foodscape in Temple Town will demonstrate how the university and its students interact with the community and culture of Philadelphia and contribute to the image of an urban university. This digital project seeks to create an informative website that explores stories surrounding food on Temple’s campus using archival sources and oral histories. This paper concludes with a reflection and exploration of the next phases of the project. Website link: https://sites.temple.edu/feedingtempletown/
History, Urban planning, Labor relations, Food, Food trucks, North Philadelphia, Temple University
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