History Commons^™

Too Taboo For You? - Questions, Lessons, And Strategies For Engaging Students With Challenging Materials, Blake Spitz

University Libraries Presentations Series

This talk will briefly present experiences of, and strategies for, teaching with challenging topics and materials in archives. In recognizing that our collections include (or have archival silences around) challenging, controversial, and even disturbing topics, when and why do we decide to share and prioritize these records, and how do we present and contextualize them for students? I will present a few case studies from my work presenting difficult records and topics to undergraduates, and some of my professional training and growth in these areas. I would love to start a dialogue, and hear from others in reaction to my, …

Combining Active Learning Exercises, Blake Spitz

University Libraries Presentations Series

This lightning talk offers an example of combining active learning exercises to achieve multiple learning outcomes (some simple, such as resource identification, and some more complex, such as understanding archival silences and power dynamics in research access). The class was in Special Collections, but the active learning exercises – one a version of “speed-dating,” and the other a version of exhibit or bibliography curation – could easily be used in a more general library information literacy class. These activities are not new, but I had never combined them in this way before, and I have found, as a result, that …

Assessing The Impact Areas Of An International Study Tour For Teachers, Raymond Y. Young

Master's Capstone Projects

In the mid-1970’s, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts became federally designated refugee settlement location for many of the people displaced by violence and conflict in Southeast Asia. Since the, large numbers of individuals and families from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, often escaping horrific conditions, have found new homes in cities and towns across the commonwealth. Today, Massachusetts ranks seventh in the national for the number of Southeast Asian Immigrants and refugees that have resettled in the United States, and is home to the second largest Khmer American population outside of California.

Despite federal, state, and local assistance to the communities and …