Lancaster Vice
Course | Registration opens 12/9/2024 8:00 AM EST
Lancaster was once infamous as a "wide open" city for commercial sex, gambling, and drinking. You will meet the men and women who labored in vice. These are people who would not usually make it into history books, or onto historical markers or monuments. You will learn how these seemingly ordinary people navigated legal, political, and economic challenges and how vice fit into their lives. Some had big dreams- to travel from their homes and the drudgery of their jobs, with the hope of finding a life of romance and luxury. Others had more immediate and pragmatic goals. Survival.
Alison Kibler
I have been teaching at F&M for twenty-two years. My research focuses on the history of American popular culture, particularly social struggles over representation and reception. The central question running through my research is: How have people of different genders, races and immigrant backgrounds shaped the development of popular culture as creators, critics, activists, and consumers? I am currently running a multi-media public history project- Lancaster Vice -which investigates the era when Lancaster was infamous as a"wide open" city for commercial sex, gambling , and drinking.