As a graduate student at Boston College in the early 2000s, Jamin Creed Rowan realized that his culture had not readily provided him with stories about city life that prepared him to make sense of the emotional connection he felt for the strangers with whom he shared his city. Rowan recounts the process of searching for and discovering a rich intellectual countertradition that explores and validates the variety of social configurations made possible by the city—a process that routed him through the Burns Library and other archives. Drawing upon his recent book, The Sociable City, Rowan discusses the history of how American society has conceived of urban relationships and considers how these ideas have shaped the cities in which we live.

Jamin Creed Rowan received his PhD in English from Boston College in 2008. He is an Associate Professor at Brigham Young University, where he teaches courses in the English Department and the American Studies Program.

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