Research & Community Engagement Projects
My research projects focus on born-digital cultural heritage and community-driven approaches to digital curation. Specifically, I study the social contexts in which different communities interpret and use digital cultural heritage artifacts. I use this understanding to inform the development of frameworks, models, and approaches for curating and preserving heritage over time.
Current Projects
Diving into Archives! (August 2024 – Present)
Currently, there is little overlap between archivists working with regional collections and K-12 classrooms. This gap can serve as an unintended obstacle for broadening engagement and use of the wide range of digital primary sources becoming available through regional archives. What new literacies need to be developed and incorporated for educators to ethically integrate digital heritage sources? How can archivists work with educators to develop curriculum that reflects their respective domain knowledge? What new possibilities and extensions to historical understanding are introduced by digital heritage storytelling and community engagement initiatives? This research is funded with generous support from the Eleanor M. and Frederick G. Kilgour Research Grant.
PREVIOUS PROJECTS
HIH Civic Educators Pilot Cohort (October 2021-August 2022): With generous funding from the Civic Switchboard initiative and the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS), members of the Hacking into History (HIH) project team partnered with local educators in Durham, North Carolina in October 2021 to launch The Civic Educators Pilot project. The purpose of the pilot was to explore how educators can use primary source materials in place-based learning to support new kinds of understanding. Do these approaches using locally-relevant documentation deepen historical connections? What impact do these “historical harms” have on participants interacting with difficult subject matter for the first time? Recruited participants from the Durham Public Schools (DPS) used the HIH platform to design curriculum, including exercises and activities for engaging students in hands-on learning about racial covenant clauses in Durham County and across the United States.