Lecturer Seth Lunine

My experience growing up in the East Bay shaped my academic interests in the historical roots of contemporary urban transformations in California.  These interests structured my B.A. and Ph.D. in Geography at U.C. Berkeley, as well as my M.A. at California State University, Northridge.  My dissertation, Iron, Oil, and Emeryville: Resource Industrialization and Metropolitan Expansion in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1850-1900, combined urban and economic geography to study the role of industrialization in both regional capitalism and metropolitan growth.  I am currently building on this research by writing about urban politics, commercial entertainment, and popular culture in a book manuscript, Sin Suburb: Manufacturing Vice in Emeryville and the San Francisco Bay Area.  New projects on the early high explosives sector and specialized Bay Area corporations depict the decisive but overlooked role of innovative industries in not only California’s development but also in broader patterns of U.S. economic expansion during the late-19th century.

Participation in the American Cultures Engaged Scholarship Program (ACES) has enhanced my teaching and helped me continue exploring issues of power, race, and class in the contemporary city.  Drawing on my experience in the nonprofit sector, I have designed and implemented student partnerships with artists, activists, and community organizations that are confronting gentrification, displacement, and homelessness in San Francisco’s Tenderloin and SOMA districts.  Please visit the U.C. Berkeley American Cultures website for more information on my ACES projects:  https://americancultures.berkeley.edu/collaborate/student-projects/geography