The Leverhulme Trust funded ‘Cultures of the Suburbs International Research Network’ started in September 2011. The Network is a partnership between the Universities of Exeter and Kingston (UK), Witwatersrand (South Africa), Hofstra (USA), Griffith (Australia), the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, and Jain University Bangalore, and its purpose is to support scholarly activities relating to the cultural life of the suburbs.
New Participant
Bergen Community College, New Jersey, is one of the latest participants in the Network. Bergen CC runs an active Suburban Studies cluster, headed up by Prof. Phil Dolce, spanning a range of disciplines and interest groups. One of the college’s recent successful initiatives has been integrating the study of the suburbs in their English as a Second Language Teaching. The tutor, Professor Figaro’s notes are available via the Resources tab on this site.
New Project
Anyone with an interest in the cultural life of the suburbs will want to take a look at the new AHRC funded Making Suburban Faith project, based at University College London. For further details see the project website here:
http://www.makingsuburbanfaith.org/
New Publication
Followers of our Network may be interested to take a look at the latest issue (issue 08) of 2ha magazine. This issue focuses on the relationship between suburbia and modernism.
HistoryPin
We now have our own ‘Cultures of the Suburbs’ Channel on the HistoryPin site. If you wish to contribute any pictures to the site, please contact suburbs@exeter.ac.uk. To view our profile click here.
NEWS: The Cultures of the Suburbs Network recently held its closing conference at the University of Exeter on the theme of Imagining the Suburbs. Abstracts, a copy of the programme, and a conference report are available here.
A selection of working papers from the conference is available here.
Delegates to the Imagining the Suburbs Conference, University of Exeter, June 2014
Children’s author, Michael Rosen, prior to his keynote speech at the Imagining the Suburbs Conference, University of Exeter (June 2014).
Virtual Exhibitions
Faith in Suburbia
Photographs taken by senior members of faith communities in Ealing and Hanwell (London) for a collaborative photography project organised by UCL geographer Claire Dwyer and award-winning photographer Liz Hingley.
Manchester Suburban Areas
This is a small selection of individual images of some of the suburbs in both North and South Manchester.
Occidente Nuevo
A collaborative project by Anthony P. Marchetti and Laura E. Migliorino, which explores the architecture and human experience of Tijuana neighborhoods built almost entirely out of recycled architecture.
Pyrmont Paintings
A selection of paintings showing the cycle of abandonment, decay, destruction and renewal of an inner-city landscape.
Suburban Shadows
This work consists of a series of oil pastels depicting shadows cast on both the interiors and exteriors of suburban houses both day and night.
