Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media

Counseling graduate student awarded fine arts fellowship

Colleen Rich — Tue, 11 Jun 2024 12:50:29 +0000

Counseling graduate student awarded fine arts fellowship Colleen Rich Tue, 06/11/2024 - 08:50

��AV graduate student Truman Deree is one of 20 students (one of five graduate fellows) awarded a 2024-25 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Visual Arts Fellowship. He received the award for his photography, which he also shares at TrumanDereePhotography on Instagram.

Truman Deree. Photo provided

The fellowship comes with a $6,000 scholarship paid throughout the 2024-25 academic year and the opportunity to have his art placed throughout Richmond in locations such as VMFA’s Amuse Restaurant and Claiborne Robertson Room, VMFA’s Pauley Center Galleries, and Richmond International Airport. I caught up with Deree to learn more about his work and his experience at Mason.

What inspires you?

I always, even as a kid, liked doing photography for fun. I really got into it in high school. I took photography classes all four years. I had a really great teacher, Ms. Davidson, and I won my first awards at that point. That inspired me to be more proactive in taking photos and submitting them and sharing them. It’s continued to be something that I like to do as a hobby throughout my education.

Could you tell me more about what you do at Mason?

I am a graduate student pursuing a master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling. I am two years into my program with one year left, attending full-time. I decided I wanted to be a counselor in undergrad (psychology at James Madison University) because I had had positive experiences with counselors and wanted to do that for other people.

I have two student jobs, one as a graduate researcher for the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, and one as a clerk for the Faculty Senate. My photography is more of a hobby, although I do also use the editing and planning skills I use with it in my work and academic career.

What led you to ��AV?

I had a friend who was attending undergraduate here and heard that Mason offered a good community. I went to high school in Arlington, so I liked the Northern Virginia region, and I knew that I wanted to become licensed in Virginia. There are good options for my line of work in the Northern Virginia/D.C. region.

As Above, So Below, a photo by Truman Deree

What do you do at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media?

I am part of a team researching the U.S. census on religious bodies from 1926. We look at photos of the actual census forms and are digitizing information from those forms so that we can gain a better understanding of America’s religious institutions at the time and map it out. I have been working on that project for about 2.5 semesters now. It’s a large ongoing project, called American Religious Ecologies.

What are your future plans, and how will the VMFA scholarship impact those?

I’m hoping to graduate next May. Right now, I’m doing my practicum, and I have two semesters of internship left. After that, my plan is to become a licensed counselor. The fellowship will be helpful to me by giving me some added stability to pay for all of my needs through graduate school. I’m very thankful in that regard.

Did you have any advice to share with other students?

First, I would say that for any creative project, practice and submit. There are so many places to share your art if you look. I think Mason is really great in this regard because there are so many student publications for most types of writing or art you can think of. I personally have been published in the Hispanic Culture Review, and that was super cool, so I encourage Mason students to explore the list of student publications and see if any of them correspond with what you’re into.

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Mason doctoral student uses archival practice to unfold the present

Pam Shepherd — Mon, 04 Dec 2023 21:23:28 +0000

Mason doctoral student uses archival practice to unfold the present Pam Shepherd Mon, 12/04/2023 - 16:23

In This Story

Laurence Bray, PhD

Gabrielle A. Tayac

As part of a military family, Timmia King, a doctoral student in history and art history at ��AV, was exposed to various cultures during her childhood. These experiences made her eager to explore new topics and gain insight into different people and their lives.

“I’m interested in community archiving, which is where community members participate in archiving and documenting their experiences,” said King. “It’s a way for individuals to take control of how they’re represented and put it out there for other people to participate or view.”

After earning a BA in Afro-American studies from Howard University and a dual MA from Indiana University-Bloomington in library science and African American and African diaspora studies, King chose Mason to pursue a PhD.

“The program I’m in focuses on not only pushing students into academia but also into the public history sector. I thought this would be a good place to gain academic training while being in an environment where it isn’t expected that you’ll solely go toward the academic route,” King said.

The community environment at Mason was a strong selling point for her, as were projects the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media (RCHNM) had conducted in the public history field.

The community environment at Mason was a strong selling point for PhD student Timmia King. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

Along with community archiving, King is highly interested in African American studies, especially the ways in which African descended communities have documented themselves and their archival practices over time. She is focusing primarily on how and why they choose to document their customs and represent themselves in certain ways. This includes memories, naming practices, cultural practices (e.g., dances), and other traditions that are passed down (e.g., recipes). 

“I think what really influences my research interest is the strong desire to understand how and why people, particularly of African descent, have chosen to document themselves in certain ways outside of archival structures,” she said. “One way I’m exploring this topic is through naming, choosing individuals’ last names after enslavement, how they inscribed the memories on themselves, and what that means for them and future generations.”

Gabrielle A. Tayac, associate professor in the history and art history department, serves as King’s advisor. “Timmia's focus area on African American archives with community ties cultivates attention and value to overlooked and obscured experiences. Her research uplifts people whose lives and actions reveal essential experiences in history,” Tayac said. “Timmia brings wholeness and brave truthtelling to archival scholarship.”

King wants to help others learn about history and spread knowledge through her own passion in exploring that realm. Her thesis “Strategies and Approaches for Building an African American Digital Archive” displays a deeper look at the theoretical underpinnings of online community archiving.

“I am honored to be able to support Timmia’s innovative, compassionate, and rigorous work that uplifts African American community memory through archival practice,” Tayac said. “I feel inspired and encouraged that her community beneficial archival work will recreate historic understandings.”

In 2021, King was accepted into the Graduate Inclusion and Access (GIA) Scholarship program at Mason, a competitive scholarship awarded to new PhD first-generation college student applicants in need of financial aid.

“The scholarship is a recognition of the work you’ve been doing and also a way to say that you have people that support you, believe in you, and let you feel that what you’re doing is important,” King said. “Being a part of this community has given me more confidence in myself and my work.”

Laurence Bray, associate provost of graduate education believes Timmia’s work is already having a significant impact on American history, culture, and memory. “Through the GIA scholarship, I am delighted to see that Timmia is able to pursue her research interests and accomplish her professional goals,” Bray said.

Currently, King is involved in an ongoing research project titled “History and Culture Access Consortium” as a graduate research assistant at the RCHNM.”

“The project’s goal is to provide visibility to the collections at various HBCUs [Historically Black Colleges and Universities] around the country,” King said. Her work includes helping to make a public website using Omeka S to share these collections,

King is interested in expanding her journey into the public sector, possibly in a job with a library or a government archive.

“Whatever position I end up in, my goal is to be available as a community consultant so that I’m able to help and maintain archives and provide guidance to others with their own archival journeys,” King said.

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A window into the region’s past and present

Sarah Holland — Wed, 27 Sep 2023 13:40:42 +0000

A window into the region’s past and present Sarah Holland Wed, 09/27/2023 - 09:40

Funded by the Office of the Provost, a project called “IndigenoUS Northern Virginia” brings together an interdisciplinary approach to increase knowledge and discussion of indigeneity, present and past in our region, created with the Center for Humanities Research (CHR) and the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media (RRCHNM), under the leadership of principle investigator Gabrielle Tayac, associate professor of history. During a three-week summer institute, students traveled around Northern Virginia, meeting with different communities and tribal members to learn about their role in the foundation and growth of Northern Virginia.

CHR is one of Mason’s five transdisciplinary research centers for advanced study. It was created in 2020 with support from the Provost’s Office and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS).

Students participate in circulo, led by Juan Pacheco. Photo provided.

Public administration major Nardi Soto Cordova registered for the summer institute because she has Indigenous ancestry, Quechua, and wanted to learn more “After meeting Quechua and Aymara people, I realized that traditions I've been involved with my whole life are, in fact, indigenous practices.”

As the university works to build communities and bring a sense of belonging for everyone, Tayac believes that bringing together Mason students and local tribal members and leaders will create sustainable connections across the community and region with indigenous communities.

Art history graduate student Sean Simmons, one of 12 summer students, described the “Circulo” led by Mason alum Juan Pacheco, coordinator of the East Coast chapter of Barrios Unidos. “I've never been in a learning environment that was simultaneously so welcoming and impactful,” he said.

Using public history methodologies and indigenous ways of knowing and being, the institute brings experiential and immersive learning to the understanding of the topics.

“It’s not just looking at old histories and understandings of the land that we live on and with, but also the living, vibrant communities that have continued, and looking at how our understandings of self in an intellectual community like Mason are intertwined,” said Tayac. “Knowing the people changes how you understand and share the history.”

Students shared meals, listened to stories, visited sacred sites, and engaged in traditions both on and off campus with local indigenous communities. On the summer solstice, the students meditated in the new garden beside Horizon Hall on ��AV's Fairfax Campus, led by visiting Andean Indigenous leaders.

Tayac and Director of CHR Alison Landsberg debrief with their students. Photo provided.

Domi Hannon, an Honors College student majoring in foreign languages, as well as a student leader of Mason’s Native American and Indigenous Alliance (NAIA), said understanding the indigenous landscape requires looking to the past in order to move forward.

The CHR hopes that the success of this institute will lead to future funding for public humanities projects. “Our methodology is based in what can we learn from communities, and what can we give back to communities,” explained Catherine Olien, project manager for IndigenoUS Northern Virginia and associate director of CHR. “Projects like this allow faculty, staff, students, and the community to learn from each other and grow together.”

Learn more about IndigenoUs

In This Story

Gabrielle A. Tayac

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The student-produced podcast The Green Tunnel just achieved a major milestone

Shayla Brown — Wed, 23 Aug 2023 16:43:05 +0000

The student-produced podcast The Green Tunnel just achieved a major milestone Shayla Brown Wed, 08/23/2023 - 12:43

The Green Tunnel podcast, hosted by ��AV professor Mills Kelly, has recently reached 100,000 downloads, a milestone that puts the show in the top 3% of podcasts nationwide.

“We've achieved a lot, and we're so proud of it. We have some really devoted listeners; if we drop any new content, a thousand people download almost immediately,” said Kelly.

From left to right: Hayley Madl, Ashley Palazzo, Mills Kelly, Eleanor Magness, and Bridget Bukovich at the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. Photo provided.

The podcast is produced through Mason’s Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media (RRCHNM) and focuses on the history of the Appalachian Trail (AT), a prominent long-distance hiking trail along the East Coast that goes through 14 states from Georgia to Maine.

The project was initiated after the RRCHNM received a $1 million grant from the Mellon Foundation to fund R2 Studios, as well as conduct more fundraising and community outreach. The first episode of The Green Tunnel podcast was released on October 6, 2021, and the grant will fund the effort for another year.

“This show has given both graduate students and one amazing undergrad the opportunity to work on a professionally produced podcast,” said Kelly, who just completed a four-year term as the director of RRCHNM. "The students are the producers so they [choose] the topics and figure out who should be interviewed.”

Students who join the podcast can earn internship credit for Mason’s applied history program.

“Something unique about this podcast as far as student work goes is that it's very interdisciplinary. I think that's important considering that it's a history podcast,” said Bridget Bukovich, community engagement coordinator at RRCHNM, who started on the podcast as a Mason graduate intern.

Eleanor Magness has been hiking for most of her life. “I come from a long line of park rangers on my mom's side,” said the junior public history major.

Magness’ love of the trail led her to join the podcast as a freshman intern in 2021 where she wrote, researched, and edited entire podcast episodes, including Leave Only Footprints, Craving Community, and her personal favorite, Gear Up.

“I had full creative control, but Mills was always available to help me and answer any questions I had,” said Magness, who is also in the Honors College.

From left to right: Eleanor Magness, Bridget Bukovich, Mills Kelly, Ashley Palazzo, and Hayley Madl at the Manassas Gap Shelter. Photo provided.

Hayley Madl is a third-year PhD history student who specializes in community-engaged indigenous history. Madl produced the Native Persistence episode, which featured Mason associate history professor Gabrielle Tayac, a member of the Piscataway Indian Nation.

“It was a great opportunity for me to do community-engaged work in indigenous history and talk to native communities,” said Madl.

Madl is from western Pennsylvania, and her favorite hiking location is Allegheny National Forest in Marienville, Pennsylvania. Two of her brothers have completed AT thru-hikes, and Madl also hopes to complete one.

"The AT is one giant community,” said Madl. “That’s where a lot of our interviews primarily come from.”

Madl said that the podcast provides the opportunity to talk about many issues such as ensuring equal trail access for all hikers, and how native communities are affected by the trail.

Each season of The Green Tunnel contains around 15 episodes—eight full-length episodes and seven short “iconic locations” episodes. The third season, which launches in mid-October, will focus on the natural history of the trail going back a hundred million years, says Mills.

The Green Tunnel has done cross-promotions with other podcasts such as Virginia Outdoor Adventures, the Jester Section Hiker, and the Orange Blaze Florida Trail. Kelly was interviewed on all three shows.

Every episode of The Green Tunnel includes a transcript, show notes, suggested readings, and images that relate to the episode topic for listeners who are interested in learning more about the AT.

Listen to the Podcast

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Mason faculty awarded three NEH grants

Colleen Rich — Mon, 21 Aug 2023 17:27:36 +0000

Mason faculty awarded three NEH grants Colleen Rich Mon, 08/21/2023 - 13:27

��AV is proud to announce that four faculty in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences have been awarded grant awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Three grants, totaling more than $600,000, were awarded to faculty conducting research in Mason’s Higher Education Program, the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media (RRCHNM), and the Department of History and Art History.

“It is wonderful to see so many of our faculty being recognized with prestigious NEH awards,” said Michele Schwietz, the college’s associate dean for research. “Receiving multiple peer-reviewed NEH grants is truly a testament to the influential humanities work that our faculty conduct throughout the college.”

Unpacking the History of Higher Education in the United States

Kelly Schrum, professor of higher education, and Nate Sleeter, research assistant professor and RRCHNM’s director of educational projects, received a $220,000 Institutes for Higher Education Faculty award for the project, “Unpacking the History of Higher Education in the United States.” The grant will fund a four-week institute for 25 higher education faculty about the history of U.S. higher education. Read more about the project.

Mathematical Humanists

Together with the University of California, Los Angeles, Jessica Otis, assistant professor of history and the director of public projects at RRCHNM, received a $240,787 Institutes for Advanced Topics in the Digital Humanities award for the project, “Mathematical Humanists.” Otis will co-direct the project, which includes a series of in-person, online, and asynchronous professional development workshops on statistics, graphs and networks, linear algebra, and discrete mathematics methods that inform computational humanities methodologies such as network analysis, and text mining and analysis. The workshops will be hosted by Mason and University of California, Los Angeles.

La Sefra (The Globe): A Late Medieval World of Merchants, Maps, and Manuscripts

Mason is a sub-recipient on a $150,000 Scholarly Editions and Translations grant awarded to the New College of Florida for the project, “La Sefra (The Globe): A Late Medieval World of Merchants, Maps, and Manuscripts.” Amanda Madden, assistant professor of history and director of geospatial history at RRCHNM, is Mason’s lead on the project, which will prepare an interactive digital edition of the 15th-century Florentine geographic textbook called La Sfera. Madden and the RRCHNM team will develop the project’s website, which will include a crowd-sourcing feature. Read more about the project.

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Strategic Direction

NEH grant helps Mason, partners create digital archive of Civil War graffiti

Colleen Rich — Tue, 14 Mar 2023 20:47:15 +0000

NEH grant helps Mason, partners create digital archive of Civil War graffiti Colleen Rich Tue, 03/14/2023 - 16:47

When Civil War soldiers were stationed in Northern Virginia, they left behind drawings, written passages, and other graffiti that serve as a historical record.

Mason's Mills Kelly working in the Brandy Station house. Photo provided

Now those markings at two historic Virginia sites are being preserved thanks to a partnership between ��AV’s award-winning Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media (RRCHNM), the Fairfax City’s Office of Historic Resources, and the Brandy Station Foundation. The partnership recently received a $60,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Office of Preservation and Access, to support the project.

The grant “Off the Wall: Digital Preservation of Civil War Graffiti Houses” will develop a proposal for an eventual implementation grant aimed at digitizing and contextualizing the graffiti and associated ancillary materials held by Historic Blenheim in Fairfax and the Brandy Station Foundation in Culpeper related to the graffiti in their two historic house museums.

Working with R.B. Toth Associates LLC of Oakton, this grant will use a range of digital imaging technology and work processes to capture the graffiti on the walls of Historic Blenheim and the Graffiti House at Brandy Station, and develop a metadata schema that will allow for the digitization and contextualization of the graffiti. This schema will serve as a model for future digitization projects of images on vertical surfaces.

R.B. Toth Associates is providing equipment to digitize the graffiti. Photo provided

“The graffiti gives you an insight into the lived experience of an individual soldier who was struggling to deal with an incredibly brutal war,” said Mills Kelly, director of RRCHNM and project manager.

R.B. Toth Associates provides digitization services and application of new technologies for cultural heritage preservation and research around the globe. They conducted multispectral imaging of both Civil War houses as part of a National Park Service technology development grant.

Mike Toth, president and chief technology officer of R.B. Toth Associates, who audits classes at Mason for personal enrichment, is providing technical support to the project.

For his business, Toth works with X-ray Synchrotrons and other various advanced systems. For this project, everything from cell phone cameras to a $50,000 Phase One 100-megapixel camera has been used to document the graffiti, said Toth.

“[The graffiti] may be the only first-person record [that says] the men who were out there fighting and dying were, at one point in time, here in Fairfax,” said Toth. “They may have gone on to die or gone home and moved on, and we're capturing that small bit of their life.”

The graffiti varies and includes poems, drawings, and even games that resemble Chinese checkers. “Some [are] talking about how they got paid and then lost all their money drinking booze,” said Toth.

Also working on the project is Stephanie Martinez, a second-year graduate student in Mason’s History and Art History Department. Martinez has been researching the murals and organizing the metadata that are the signatures, images, texts, and cartoons left behind by the soldiers.

“[Kelly] was actually my professor for a digital humanities class, so he was very instrumental in helping me develop these skills,” said Martinez. “He mentioned that they had an opening with the project and knowing my background with public history institutions, he thought it would be a great opportunity for me.”

From left to right: Mike Toth, Peggy Misch from Brandy Station Foundation's Graffiti House, Andrea Loewenwarter from Fairfax City's Historic Blenheim, and Mills Kelly.

After the last major earthquake in the region, there was damage to the Blenheim house, said Martinez. “It's very clear that these inscribed signatures and stories are not going to be there for forever, so [this project is] especially important,” she said.

Kelly stressed the importance of the collaborative nature of the grant. “As a research center at a public research university, we are so pleased to be collaborating with our two community partners in Fairfax and Culpeper. We see this project as a first and important step toward building stronger linkages between our three organizations that will benefit our students and the communities we serve.”

"The graffiti gives you an insight into the lived experience of an individual soldier who was struggling to deal with an incredibly brutal war." - Mills Kelly

Learn more about RRCHNM

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NEH/AHRC grant puts digital art history in the spotlight

Colleen Rich — Tue, 25 Jan 2022 17:23:25 +0000

NEH/AHRC grant puts digital art history in the spotlight Colleen Rich Tue, 01/25/2022 - 12:23

Deepthi Murali. Photo provided

��AV’s Deepthi Murali and Mills Kelly were recently awarded a collaborative grant co-funded by National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the United Kingdom’s Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). The NEH/AHRC New Directions for Digital Scholarship in Cultural Institutions grant will provide $49,999 in funding for the project "Subaltern Histories of Global Textiles: Connecting Collections, Expanding Engagement."

“We are very pleased to receive this grant and look forward to working closely with our partners in the U.S. and the UK,” said T. Mills Kelly, director of Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media (RRCHNM) at Mason.

Kelly and Murali are one of two sets of project directors. Meha Priyadarshini of the University of Edinburgh and Avalon Fotheringham of Victoria and Albert Museum in UK make up the second set. The Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York City is also a partner in the grant. The co-directed project includes data collection, analysis, and construction of a prototype website to explore the use of Indian-style textiles in the African diaspora in the 18th and 19th centuries.

“I was absolutely thrilled to receive the grant,” said Murali, who is a postdoctoral research fellow at RRCHNM. “I am still in disbelief that we get to work with two of the largest design museums in the world on this project, as well as with the rich archival material at University of Glasgow.”

Mills Kelly. Photo provided

Murali says her inspiration for this project stems from a series of conversations that she organized in Spring 2021 on the Material Histories of the Indian Ocean World, hosted by the center. Talks between Murali and co-director Meha Priyadarshini about lesser-known textiles from South Asia and their presence in the Americas in the late 18th and 19th centuries motivated them to craft a digital public history project that visualizes this complex networked history in ways that are accessible to a global public.

Murali said she hopes this project shows how collaborative research is the way forward for the humanities, especially for those interested in transcultural or global studies.

A cloth merchant from South India in the early-19th century displaying textiles to an Indian middleman who is commissioned to buy the textiles for British traders. Circa 1807. Photo courtesy of the British Library Board

“As the first digital history project from the center/department that is art history-centered and on South Asia specific, it would be wonderful if this kind of collaborative work becomes part of the training for students in the humanities,” said Murali.

Murali said they plan to have at least two graduate students from Mason’s Department of History and Art History on the team and hope to include undergraduates in the research.

“Graduate students working on the project will be working closely with me in identifying textiles and imagery of African diaspora that will be used in the project along with collections research at Cooper-Hewitt,” said Murali. “We hope at least one graduate student will also take part in the design of the digital prototype itself after we gather our research data.”

Murali said a prototype website will be available in 2023.

Murali said they also plan to convene a workshop at Mason this academic year to bring together a diverse group of scholars from textile and material culture historians to scholars of African-American, colonial, and South Asian history.

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National Endowment for the Humanities

Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Research

Rosenzweig Center’s 9/11 Archive was the first of its kind

Colleen Rich — Fri, 10 Sep 2021 14:53:16 +0000

Rosenzweig Center’s 9/11 Archive was the first of its kind Colleen Rich Fri, 09/10/2021 - 10:53

The September 11 Digital Archive was one of the first digital archives of its kind, and it went on to become the Library of Congress's first digital acquisition in 2003.

Launched in January 2002, the digital archive gave people a collective way to upload their stories online.

And it was challenging at first to get people to tell their stories, and share their digital photos and emails, said T. Mills Kelly, director of Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at ��AV, the original home of the archive, because it was not common at the time and social media platforms like Facebook did not exist.

“It was really difficult to get the first 300 stories,” said Kelly. “In keeping with Roy’s vision, the archive now has 72,000 stories, more than 6,000 digital images, a little over 900 audio files, which makes it the richest archive of people’s personal experience at that moment.”

He added, “It’s the story of how average people made sense of this moment.”

Kelly said the success of these archives depends on people participating, because historians and average people want to know how these events were experienced.

Dan Cohen and Tom Scheinfeldt were two of the founding members of the September 11 digital archive.

Cohen joined Mason in 2001, when the center received an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation grant for a digital history of science. He said the foundation asked if there anything the center was doing to record and remember the history of 9/11. The center also partnered with the Smithsonian Institution and the Library of Congress.

“The project really took off and was featured on lots of newspaper sites, New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, and after a year or so, we ended up with 150,000 digital items, including tens of thousands of stories that people typed in,” said Cohen, who is currently at Northeastern University.

“On the first anniversary, Sept. 11, 2002, when things were still pretty raw, a lot of people came to the site and recording thousands of stories on that day.”

Cohen said 9/11 was for a brief window a unifying experience for people and part of the 20th anniversary is to memorialize the people who were lost.

“The biggest takeaway is this was the first major digital acquisition from the Library of Congress,” Cohen said, “and I think 20 years later it’s recognized as kind of pioneering project to use digital media and technology to record a really critical event in history as it happens.”

One individual contribution to the 9/11 digital archive that Schenfeldt recalls was a heart monitor log.

“A guy was wearing a heart monitor while out for a morning jog, running across the Brooklyn Bridge when the first plane hit the building right at 8:46 in the morning his heart-rate spikes,” said Scheinfeldt.

Other contributions to the archive included a collection of blogs, video games, animated GIFs, and a huge variety of file formats and technologies.

“What stands out the most is the 9/11 archive is an archive of ordinary experiences, made up mostly of the thoughts and feelings of ordinary Americans and people from around the world, who witnessed this event in real time on cable television and over the internet,” said Scheinfeldt.

He added, “It was the first global event of the internet age, and everyone was immediately touched by it.”

Sheila Brennan, who served as a co-director of the digital archive project team starting in 2009, said that the digital archive launched as an online collecting portal in the same year that Wikipedia launched.

“We’re building collections that don’t exist in physical museums,” said Brennan, who now works for the National Endowment for the Humanities.

James Sparrow, who served as associate director of the 9/11 digital archive, said the key to the archive’s success was its ability to engage a public audience for the task of preserving the memory of 9/11 before it faded or was lost to corrupted files, operating system upgrades or other changes. Sparrow is presently an associate professor at the University of Chicago.

“The 9/11 Digital Archive was a pioneering effort of university-based historians and digital producers to document the first world historical event that was fully captured and recorded in a range of digital formats,” said Stephen Brier, a professor at the City University of New York (CUNY). “When the Library of Congress accessioned the 9/11 Digital Archive in 2003, it was the first fully digital collection of materials it had ever added to its collections.”

Along with Roy Rosenzweig, Josh Brown was co-principal investigator of The September 11 Digital Archive, which was a collaboration between Mason and the City University of New York Graduate Center’s American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning—for which Brown served as executive director from 1998 to 2019.

“Having collaborated on new media projects dating back to 1993, CHNM and ASHP decided to undertake this major archival project because we believed, as historians, that the digital materials related to the attacks would be central to any future understanding of Sept. 11th and the larger political, social, and economic meanings of that epochal historical moment,” said Brown, professor emeritus, CUNY.

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Rosenzweig Center’s 9/11 Archive was one of the first of its kind

Colleen Rich — Thu, 09 Sep 2021 22:17:03 +0000

Rosenzweig Center’s 9/11 Archive was one of the first of its kind Colleen Rich Thu, 09/09/2021 - 18:17