Graduate School Public Lectures

Chocolate Cities and Vanilla Suburbs: Race, Space and American Culture After World War II

Tues. Jan. 27, 2015       6:30 p.m.

Kane Hall 120, UW Seattle Campus

Departing from the Cold War narratives taken for granted in depictions of the United States after World War II, Eric Avila explores new interpretations of urban postwar life, where highway construction, suburbanization, deindustrialization, slum clearance and white flight redefined the American city as one fraught with disparities of race, class and gender.

Eric Avila is a professor of history, Chicano studies and urban planning at UCLA. He is author of Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight: Fear and Fantasy in Suburban Los Angeles (California, 2004) and The Folklore of the Freeway: Race and Revolt in the Modernist City (Minnesota, 2014).

Exploring an array of topics and themes, the 2015 Winter Graduate School Public Lectures reimagine the way we tell stories and create art, as well as how we define our communities and our place in the universe. From city planning to literature, extraterrestrial intelligence to dance, these lectures examine the issues of our day with an eye toward redefining our future.

For more information, contact the UW Alumni Association at 206-543-0540 or uwalumni@uw.edu.