Author Event | Cresheim Farm: An American History of Conquest, Privilege and Struggles for Freedom and Equality

In the Social Science & History Department, 2nd Floor

Author Antje Ulrike Mattheus will discuss this deeply researched political archaeology, which shows how one mostly unknown but strategically placed piece of land in the Mt. Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia – home to an extraordinary array of people, including the Unami Lenape, a Robber Baron, anti-slavery and racial justice activists – can tell, affect, and lend insight into the history of a nation. The talk will focus on the invention of race and whiteness, as well as struggles for democracy and equality.

Antje Ulrike Mattheus grew up in post-World War II West Germany and came to the US at 18 to be an organizer for the United Farmworkers Union. She has worked with a range of community, academic, direct action, and anti-violence programs to address white supremacy, race, class and gender inequalities. She has innovated grassroots adult education and empowerment programs and co-founded White People Confronting Racism, which has been conducting anti-racism workshops for white people since 1995. 

“In the great tradition of Alexis de Tocqueville and Gunnar Myrdal, Antje Mattheus sheds a brilliant light, along with original and compelling insights, onto American life and culture—this time, from the intriguing vantage point of a single homestead, a historical farmhouse in the city of Philadelphia. This fascinating book is a must-read!” -Elijah Anderson, Sterling Professor of Sociology and African American Studies, Yale University

Registration encouraged but not required