From ‘Boardwalk Empire’ Politics to Springsteen, NJIT Debuts New Jersey Studies Initiative
Greetings from New Jersey.
A state of political bosses who inspired HBO’s Boardwalk Empire. Of eerie legends like the Jersey Devil and the 1916 Matawan shark attacks. Of shorelines, small towns and highways that became the backdrop for Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run.
Next fall, New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) will become the place to study them all.
NJIT’s Department of Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) has launched its “New Jersey Studies Initiative” — a new series of courses that will offer a deep dive into the state’s politics, culture, mythology and civic life from its 1787 founding to the present.
Starting next fall, the unique cluster of courses will tackle everything from Jersey Shore culture and its environmental concerns to the state's machine politics, paranormal folklore and landmark true crime cases.
There’s even a full course devoted to New Jersey’s most recognized artist — “The Boss” himself, Bruce Springsteen.
“As a New Jersey native, I’ve long been struck by how often the state’s history and many amazing achievements go underappreciated, even by those who grew up here,” said HSS Chair Maurie Cohen. “While other colleges have offered New Jersey-themed courses, this initiative at NJIT is unique — a one-stop shop that brings the study of the Garden State under one roof to help students foster a deeper sense of local pride.”
One of the cornerstone courses, New Jersey Politics and Policy, will be taught by Ed Johnson, former mayor of Asbury Park and a central figure in the city’s historic transformation and moments such as Hurricane Sandy recovery and welcoming President Barack Obama in 2013.
“It’s exciting to bring this course to NJIT,” said Johnson, who also teaches political science at Rutgers and works in government and community relations at Brookdale Community College. “I get to share both the history and the on-the-ground reality of New Jersey politics.”
Johnson said the class examines how the state’s political history — including its well-known north-south divide — continues to shape the present.
“We’ll talk about the state’s geography and power players like Frank Hague in the north and [Enoch] Nucky Johnson down south … referred to as ‘Nucky Thompson’ from Boardwalk Empire,” Johnson said. “Their model of influence is still felt. It’s important for students to see how historic dynamics show up in today’s politics.”
The course also explores modern debates over affordability, infrastructure and governance across New Jersey’s 564 municipalities — the most per square mile of any state in the country.
“We’re going to look at how we got here and what role students can play in where we go next. Public policy doesn’t operate separately from technology,” he said. “The work our students are training to do will shape how people live. They need to understand the history, the present and be ready for the future.”
Springsteen’s Visions of the Promised Land
Another highly-anticipated course will explore the state from a different vantage point — through the music of perhaps its most recognizable poetic voice.
Visions of the Promised Land: Bruce Springsteen’s America will be taught by Dan Loughran, assistant superintendent in Franklin Township Public Schools and a Springsteen scholar published in the Biannual Online-Journal of Springsteen Studies (BOSS).
Loughran said the course will unpack decades of Springsteen’s lyrics, performances and public statements to examine themes of citizenship, working-class identity and what the artist once described as “the gap between the American dream and the American reality.”
He plans to regularly bring in special guest speakers from across Springsteen’s orbit — artists, archivists and other figures connected to his work — and have students examine the songs alongside historical texts, responding through writing and creative projects of their own.
“It really has to become their course,” Loughran said. “Springsteen is a starting point, but the questions are bigger — what does it mean to be a citizen? What does it mean to belong to a place?
“Those questions feel especially relevant today. There’s never been a better time to be interested in Springsteen,” he added.
The new course will arrive on the heels of the opening of the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music in Monmouth County in June.
“You can’t separate him from New Jersey,” Loughran said. “And yet, he took very specific places — Atlantic City, Asbury, all the backstreets and highways — and made people all over the world feel as if he was writing and singing about their hometowns and their lives.”
Beyond Springsteen, other courses will tackle the state’s storied and more mysterious corners.
New Jersey in Popular Culture will cover aspects of the state’s personality and influence on pop culture — from its diners and Atlantic City to The Sopranos, MTV's The Jersey Shore and the likes of Frank Sinatra.
Meanwhile, Creepy New Jersey will delve into the state's unique folklore and unexplained phenomena, and Fact & Fiction: True Crime in the Garden State will analyze high-profile crime narratives and figures that have dominated news headlines in past decades. Down the Shore: Everything’s All Right will study tourism, music and environmental change along the state's famed Atlantic coastline.
Together, Cohen says the courses challenge the popular notion that New Jersey is merely a pass-through between New York and Philadelphia — a perception dating back to Benjamin Franklin’s description of the state as “a keg tapped at both ends.”
“New Jersey has long been a dynamic melting pot — by many measures, the most multi-ethnic state in the country, attracting people from around the globe. We are committed to studying and celebrating that,” Cohen said. “The goal is for every student to leave these courses as an ambassador for the state, taking pride in the wonders it has contributed, and continues to contribute, to the world.”