Introduction to Public History
Rutgers University-Newark
How can public history projects help shape our future to be more just and equitable?
To answer this and other questions, this course will examine the field of public history alongside existing public history and public memory projects including the Queer Newark Oral History Project, Black Power! 19th Century, and Humanities Action Lab’s Climates of Inequality exhibit. With a focus on Newark’s history, we will explore how public historians interpret, analyze, and produce stories about the past for public audiences. As we explore different projects, we will look at how public historians elevate marginalized histories, hold themselves accountable to the communities whose stories they are documenting, and the different methods used to produce and share stories in ways that underline their importance to the present.
Ultimately, we will consider the extent to which public history can be used to identify and redress past harms, influence policy, and provide a roadmap for resistance that brings us closer to liberatory goals.
History of Newark
Rutgers University - Newark
Oral History: Storytelling as Resistance
Rutgers University-Newark
How can storytelling be a tool of resistance? In this course, we will explore how oral history is a method used by historians to fill in archival gaps and silences that have failed to include the history of marginalized individuals and communities. Oral history projects that capture the stories of marginalized people are an important key to understanding complex issues of oppression, strategies of resistance, and dynamics of power over time. Not only does it allow historians to ask new questions about the past, scholars and activists can also use oral history to study issues and advocate for societal change based on insights learned through oral history interviews.
African American History I
Rutgers University-Newark
This course is an introduction to the academic field of African American History, from 1619 through the Reconstruction Era. Our focus will be on the major issues and events of African American history and culture with attention to issues of gender, class, and sexuality and how African Americans engaged in resistance during slavery and in the years after. We will also consider how this history has an impact on contemporary issues and how to share this history with a contemporary audience.
Intro to American Studies
Rutgers University - Newark
This course introduces students to the interdisciplinary field of American Studies.
This course will examine the 350+ year history of the nation’s third oldest city, Newark NJ. Our goal will to be to gain an understanding of the critical events that shaped the city specifically, but also to
think about the city’s history through the lens of race, class, gender, and sexuality. We will begin our story at the city’s founding and end it with an assessment of where we are today. This course is how Newark became Newark, and all the meanings that encompasses.