Introduction to Public History, Spring 2020 - Final project I created a dynamic web presentation to share my MA research findings with an audience of public history practitioners. Using photographs and examples from Historic Stagville near Durham, NC, I highlight the possibilities for public engagement and inclusive interpretation through incorporating landscape change over time into public tours and materials. View my work at https://spark.adobe.com/page/4tWHdNVALgMYZ/
Geographic Materialisms, Fall 2018 - Class project A souvenir Civil War battlefields map enables me to think through aesthetic constructions of authenticity in landscape and geographies of heritage. I argue that material engagement with history is fundamental to performing specific American identities, with consequences for American futures. View my work and explore the full class project at http://therealtracesofspaces.web.unc.edu/civil-war-battlefield-map-1861-1865/
Courses
GEOGRAPHY: A rigorous foundation in geographic theory with an emphasis on anti-racist, feminist, and decolonial cultural geographies and spatial research
Political Ecology: Fall 2018: Mixed graduate and undergraduate course on political ecology. I gained an understanding of the intersections between ecological, social, and economic processes, and began forming my M.A. thesis project through classes on natural resource management, environmental justice, and critical physical geography.
Geographic Thought: Fall 2019: Required graduate course on the history of geography as a discipline. I gained a deeper understanding of how geography has changed over the past several hundred years, and was able to locate my own sub-fields of the discipline (cultural landscapes, political ecology, etc.) in the context of larger historical trends.
Research Design: Spring 2019: Required graduate course on research design and proposal writing. I wrote the first draft of my M.A. thesis proposal and learned how to navigate the NSF proposal submission website.
Communicating Geography: Fall 2018: Required graduate course on geography as a discipline and our place in the UNC Geography department. I gained a broad understanding of several sub-fields of human geography through the required and guided readings.
Geographic Materialisms: Fall 2018: Graduate seminar on materialism in geography. I engaged with authenticity studies, material culture, and infrastructure studies, and wrote a paper on Bennett Place’s landscape as part of state historical infrastructure.
Bodies, Territory, and the Future: Spring 2019: Graduate seminar on feminist geography, land, and youth. I engaged with visceral geographies and youth geographies for the first time, and wrote a paper doing a close-reading of Frederick Jackson Turner’s “frontier thesis” and examining how Duke Homestead draws on 19th-century logics of nature, history, time, and youth to create authenticity through landscape.
Agrarian Studies: Spring 2019: Graduate seminar on land, labor, and agrarian studies. I drew extensively on national natures and identity formation through landscape and territory to write a paper on Stagville’s landscape over the past decade.
Independent Study in Qualitative Methods: Fall 2019: Independent study centered on qualitative methods and encompassing professionalization and MA work. I learned terminology and methods for qualitative research which I used to code and analyze summer interviews, and informed my GRFP and M.A. thesis proposal documents.
HISTORY: A deeper understanding of public history as a discipline and a grounding in public history practice and methods
Introduction to Public History:Spring 2020: Mixed graduate and undergraduate course on the study and practice of public history. I explored grounded public history practices.
COMMUNICATION STUDIES: Theoretical grounding in memory studies in connection with both performance and rhetoric
Performance & History: Fall 2019: Graduate seminar on performance studies, memory, and history. I brought the language of performance studies to bear on my research, and wrote a paper on the fingerprints in Stagville’s chimney and the embodied encounters/performances they call up in visitors.
Rhetoric of Public Memory: Spring 2020: Graduate seminar on rhetoric and public memory theory. I gained a deeper understanding of memory studies.
GRADUATE STUDIES: Gaining practical skills for professional development
Applied Project Management: Spring 2019: Half-semester course on project management in a variety of settings. I gained the skills and vocabulary to design and manage large projects, which has helped me plan my M.A. work and will be invaluable in planning and executing my PhD dissertation and in the professional world.