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Greetings, Scholars!

Due to last week’s cancelations due to the hurricane threat, we are a little off schedule. Fear not! Adjustments will be made. For now, please remember:

• For Tuesday, (9/18), Dr. Rob Nelson, director of the Digital Scholarship Lab at UR, will be joining us. Please make sure you’ve read the “Prologue” from Kendi’s Stamped from the Beginning along with the selections from Smith’s Managing White Supremacy. Of course, also review the link to “Mapping Inequality.”
• For Thursday (9/20), Short Writing Assignment 2 will be due before 12 PM. By class time, you also should have read the linked selections from the Alleys’ University of Richmond and Slipek’s essay on architecture at UR.

More updates to come, but in the meantime, stay safe and dry!

I’ll see you Tuesday.

Greetings, Scholars!

As we head into week 3 of Digital Memory & the Archive, I have a few brief announcements:

1. If you have not already, do not forget to complete the online quiz based on the Campbell reading as well as the selection on the history of the race construct. The quiz is accessible on Blackboard and must be completed before Tuesday’s class.
2. This Thursday there will be a symposium celebrating the life and contributions of Reverend Wyatt Tee Walker. If you can make it, this is an event not to be missed. The symposium takes place between 2 and 7:15 PM in Jepson Alumni Center, however there are several component parts, including a preview of the collection, a panel discussion, and keynote address by Dr. Joseph Evans. Any part of the symposium would be an excellent and relevant event to discuss for your Campus-City Participation Assignment.
3. Grades have posted for Short Writing Assignment 1. Please review my feedback and let me know if you have any questions.

Looking forward to class this week!

Dear Scholars,

Welcome to week 2 of Digital Memory & the Archive!

This week we have several readings (check here for readings and due dates), as well as your first Short Writing Assignment due Tuesday, September 4 by class time. Please remember to upload your assignment to Blackboard. No hard copy or late assignments will be accepted.

In preparation for Tuesday’s class, please also make sure you’ve read the brief article on “the devil’s advocate.” It is linked with the other two readings assigned for tomorrow.

Looking forward to discussing with you this week!
Dr. Maurantonio

Welcome to Digital Memory & the Archive!

This is the blog of “Digital Memory & the Archive” (Fall 2018), a joint American Studies and Rhetoric & Communication Studies seminar offered at the University of Richmond. The course is taught by Dr. Nicole Maurantonio. Below is the course description, as listed in the University of Richmond catalogue:

How do we move studies of the past into the digital realm? Throughout the semester, students will grapple with fundamental curatorial questions necessary to build an archive – a dynamic space for the preservation, storage, and accessing of historic artifacts. Complicating notions of the “archive” as a natural and transparent space, students will contribute to and reflect on the creation of entries for the Race and Racism at the University of Richmond Project digital archive and blog.

The Race and Racism at the University of Richmond Project takes as its mission the documentation, preservation, and analysis of texts illuminating dimensions of the University of Richmond’s racial history. This course will help grow the University’s collection of materials.

If you have questions about the course or the project, please contact Nicole Maurantonio, nmaurant@richmond.edu.

It’s November 1, which means your submissions to Black Quotidian will begin to appear on the site. Nice work!

Dr. Delmont has shared with us a recent piece he wrote for the American Historical Association. It discusses the meaning and value of digital work, particularly as it relates to African American history (and what history means). Read on!

Now that fall break is over, you will want to be thinking about your Campus Participation assignment. This week:

The Richmond Society of the Archaeological Institute of America is pleased to announce a lecture by Dr. Lynn Rainville (Sweet Briar College), “God’s Acre: Archaeo-Historic Insights into African American Graveyards,” on Thursday, October 13 at 6 pm in Jepson Hall 118. Co-sponsored by the UR Department of Classical Studies, the lecture is free and open to the public. 

Dear Scholars!

I hope you’ve had a restful fall break. As promised, I am writing with a couple of quick reminders about this week.

First, it looks like the weather will be excellent on Thursday. This is good news, as we will be taking a walking tour of campus and Bandy Field with Lynn Rainville, an anthropological archaeologist whose research focuses on historic cemeteries and enslaved communities. Dr. Rainville will lead us, along with Dr. Baughan’s class “Introduction to Archaeology” class, on the tour.

You might be wondering, “What does this have to do with our class?” The short answer is: a lot. Although we won’t be speaking specifically about the period our class is focusing on in the archives this semester, there is much to be learned about the grounds on which UR was built. To help give a bit of context for class on Thursday, there are a few readings posted to the website. They are short but important. Please make sure you’ve read them before class. Thursday is a great opportunity. I am eager to hear from Dr. Rainville.

Since we will be doing a fair bit of walking during our class time (part of which is a bit steep), we ask that you wear good walking shoes. We will meet at 12 noon at the transportation hub outside Tyler Haynes Commons. We will be back in time for those headed to class at 1:30 PM.

Please let me know if you have any questions, and I will see you on Thursday at 12 noon.

All the best,
NJM

Black Quotidian is a digital history project curated by Dr. Matthew Delmont, Professor of History at Arizona State University. Designed to “highlight everyday moments and lives in African-American history,” Black Quotidian collects historical articles from black newspapers to illuminate dimensions of black history and culture. Each day an article is posted from that date in history with a brief blog post commentary. As contributors to the project, each student in our class will be responsible for completing a post corresponding to a day in the month of November. The article selected can be from the years 1946-1971.

For more information on the assignment, including samples, see the course assignments page.

Dear Scholars!

I hope you’ve have a nice Labor Day weekend.

As we head into the week, I have a few quick reminders:

1. If you haven’t already, please complete the doodle poll to help us determine an alternate time for our final presentations. Please select ALL times that work for you.
2. Due for tomorrow (9/6) — the online quiz based on Campbell’s chapters from Richmond’s Unhealed History. The quiz is accessible from the course Blackboard site and will be available until class time tomorrow.
3. For Thursday’s class, you are required to read Dr. Julian Hayter’s article, “From Intent to Effect: Richmond, Virginia and the Protracted Struggle for Voting Rights, 1965-1977.” The article is available on the course website. Dr. Hayter will be joining us in class on Thursday.

That’s all for now. Please let me know if you have any questions, and I will see you in class tomorrow!

All the best,

NJM