Carleton Convo with Dr. Bryant Simon | February 14, 2025

Dr. Bryant Simon, an American historian and professor at Temple University, delivered the convocation address at Carleton on Friday, February 14 from 10:50 to 11:50 a.m. in Skinner Chapel. His speech, “The history of public bathrooms: A story of American inequality,” is based on a book he is currently writing on the topic, which is set to be published by University of Chicago Press. 

Simon has previously published four books — The Hamlet Fire: A Tragic Story of Cheap Food, Cheap Government, Cheap Lives (2017); Everything But the Coffee: Learning about America from Starbucks (2009); Boardwalk of Dreams: Atlantic City and the Fate of Urban America (2004); and A Fabric of Defeat: The Politics of South Carolina Millhands (1998). Simon has also produced three co-edited collections as well as numerous essays that have appeared in media outlets ranging from The Washington Post to the Christian Science Monitor. Beyond writing, he has appeared as a talking head in documentaries about Starbucks, the history of American food, blue jeans, the Jersey Shore, the board game Monopoly, and the Alabama-based rock and roll band Drive-By Truckers. 

The academic chair of the University Honors Program at Temple University in Philadelphia, Simon is also Laura H. Carnell Professor of History and the 2020 recipient of Temple’s Great Teacher Award. Simon founded and runs the Temple history department’s Global U.S. Studies Program, which features graduate exchange with the University of Erfurt, the University of Cologne, and Sorbonne University. Beyond his teaching, Simon’s academic work is widely recognized in his field; he is an Organization of American Historians Distinguished Speaker, an elected member of the Society of American Historians, and the previous president of the Southern Labor Studies Association. 

Simon earned both his BA and PhD from the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill. 

Learn more about Carleton Convos at go.carleton.edu/convocations