The first of its kind within the City University of New York, the Minor in Archival Studies and Community Documentation complements course work with diverse, supervised internship opportunities and field experiences in a variety of New York City cultural organizations, including museums, archives, and educational institutions. Intellectually, the minor offers students the opportunity to cultivate a deeper understanding of New York's local communities--their history, geography, culture, folklore, religions, politics, and social structures. Practically, the minor enables students to explore potential careers in various fields that draw on the study of community and archives. Professors Philip Napoli (History and the Library) and Anthony Cucchiara (Library) are the linchpins for this program.
The minor continues to flourish. In the fall 2002 Professor Napoli, the coordinator for the minor, added a new course History 43.17, The Public and the Past: An Introduction to Public History http://userhome.brooklyn.edu/pnapoli/public_history/public_frameset1.html The class enrolled 19 students and includes considerations of oral history, business history, the relationships among history, public policy, archaeology, and museums. Four students from the course went on to enroll in Professor Cucchiara's spring 2003 section of Archival Management (which has a record 20 students), readying them for their internships in September.
We were delighted in March 2003 when Professor Napoli secured a $50,000 gift from a group of anonymous donors to support the collection of approximately 75 oral histories relating to the effect of the Vietnam War on Brooklyn. The gift will support new recording equipment, transcriptions of the oral histories, and internships for students enrolled in the minor.
Presently the Minor includes these internship sites:
American Social History Project
2002 interns included:
| Donna Grant | The Brooklyn Museum of Art |
| Jennifer Borishonsky | American Museum of National History |
