PROPOSAL TYPE
Traditional Panel
SEEKING
- Seeking Additional Presenters
- Seeking General Feedback and Interest
RELATED TOPICS
- Digital
- Museums/Exhibits
- Public Engagement
- Teaching and Training
ABSTRACT
To collaborate on a new exhibition gallery, the Madison County (IL) Historical Society worked with students and faculty at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville to develop a grant-funded digital StoryMap on immigration in Madison County. After discovering a cache of letters from an immigrant’s family in Mexico, Spanish faculty at the university incorporated translating the letters into her Spanish pedagogy course, teaching the undergraduate students about translating and transcribing 1920s semi-literate letters from rural Mexico to their relative in Illinois. This project involved digital humanities, community and university collaboration, and a unique vision of pedagogy to make 100-year-old letters available for the historical society.
DESCRIPTION
This project crosses many boundaries including public history, community engagement, pedagogy, the history of underrepresented communities, accessibility, and digital humanities. I am looking to see if there are other projects that show connections between universities teaching public history with local historical societies and their projects. I think this proposal is well-suited for a traditional panel, but I am open to other formats if there are other historians or historical societies looking to complete projects like this in their communities. Some of the other issues I encountered in the project included tensions between academic and volunteer-run historical societies, expectations of student work, and creating a final project with a shared goal. I envision a potential panel with other educators who engage in collaborations with community historical societies and museums and how they are able to integrate the organizations’ needs and expectations with academic rigor, pedagogical expectations and limitations, and student abilities. This proposal fulfills the ideas of solidarity through addressing the collaborations between public historians and relevant stakeholders and through how we consider public history’s roles within our communities.
If you have a direct offer of assistance, sensitive criticism, or wish to pass along someone’s contact information confidentially, please get in contact directly: Laura Fowler, [email protected]
ALL FEEDBACK AND OFFERS OF ASSISTANCE SHOULD BE SUBMITTED BY JULY 10, 2024. If you have general ideas or feedback to share, please feel free to use the comments feature below.