American Social History Project"May I ask a favor? Could you please announce in your classes that tomorrow, March 30, Professor Tony Cucchiara and Professor Philip Napoli will host a meeting of students interested in learning about our minor in Archival Studies and Community Documentation http://depthome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/history/minor2.htm ... Students will have the opportunity to learn more about the program, meet students currently involved, and hear about the courses scheduled for the program in the upcoming fall. Light refreshments will be served.
"This fall, Professor Cucchiara will teach his course in Archival Management. The course considers the role of the archivist in historical research, the theoretical and historical basis of archival management, and the applications of modern archival practices. The Brooklyn College archives will serve as the student's laboratory. This course requires the approval of either Professor Cucchiara or me for registration.
"I am also presently scheduled to teach my course The Public and the Past. This course considers three locations where American historical consciousness is shaped outside the classroom. The first is in the major American media outlets, including movies, television, radio, the Internet, and print media. Professional public historians, often in institutional settings such as museums and archives, represent the second type. The third is commonly called ‘people's history,' and represents an effort to encourage people in local communities to articulate their own, frequently oppositional views of history. This course thus addresses the question: Who decides how the past is portrayed, and why? The purpose of this course is to provide undergraduate students with an introduction to the field of public history. Problems of source materials, interpretation and exhibition are central to the course. It will also help students develop the critical thinking skills necessary for examining how the past is represented." Philip Napoli, email message to all Brooklyn College faculty, March 29, 2004
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 lynchpins for this program.
The minor continues to flourish. In the fall 2003 Professor Napoli, the coordinator for the minor, taught Oral History 69.2 as a component of the Arts of Democracy project. The class enrolled 12 students and covered the theory and method of conducting oral history interviews. It was an especially appropriate course for inclusion in the Arts of Democracy program, as oral history explicitly values the insights and interpretations of interviewees, and it fit nicely with the AOD's goal of enhancing student's intercultural competencies. One of these students continued in Professor Cucchiara's spring 2004 section of Archival Management, readying him for his internship in September. Professor Cucchiara enrolled a total of 12 students in 2004.
In 2003 Professor Napoli secured a GRTI grant of $8,500 to support the collection of approximately 75 oral histories relating to the effect of the Vietnam War on Brooklyn. The grant enabled the purchase of additional recording equipment.
Presently the Minor includes these internship sites:
American Social History Project
Brooklyn Children's Museum
Brooklyn Historical Society
Brooklyn Museum of Art
Brooklyn Public Library
City Lore
Ellis Island Immigration Museum
Erasmus Hall Museum of Education
Gilder Lehrman Collection
Lefferts Homestead
Lesbian Herstory Archives
New York State Archives and Records Administration
Prospect Park Alliance
Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Society for the Preservation of Weeksville and Bedford-Stuyvesant
2003-2004 interns included:
| Theresa Hale | Lesbian Herstory Archive |
| Volney Cain | Special Collections, Brooklyn College Library |
