The M.A. program in public humanities offers a unique combination of theory and practice, and students have many opportunities to apply their skills through class and independent projects. Some of these projects exist online while others take place at the John Nicholas Brown Center or in the community. The projects can comprise oral histories, artworks, curated objects, primary source research, and many other components of the public humanities.
Ged Carbone, Erendina Delgadillo, Anna Links, Sarah Yahm: "Thawing the Frozen Indian: From Tobacco to 'Top Model'", an installation curated by students of ETHN1890N, who attempt to raise awareness around the complicated history of misrepresentation of Native Americans both inside museums and beyond their walls.
Resi Polixa: History/Herstory, Mystory/Yourstory: Participatory Historical Interpretation in Museums and ESOL Classrooms. Inspired by Ethnic Studies course- Community, Literacy, and Language and work in an ESL-Citizenship class at the Providence Community Library.
Elyse McNiff: "When We Didn't Touch the Ground", curated by Elyse McNiff, a large-scale video installation in which Megan and Murray McMillan have built an homage to the environments that they each created as children, reinterpreting the sites of their early imaginative lives to explore what it means to combine creative worlds at the Granoff Center for Creative Arts.
Read the Boston Globe Review
Anna Wada: Antiquing Memories. Through the cult(ure) of collecting and financial transaction, the significance of antique objects shifts between mass-produced product, functional object, commercial product as a "curiosity," personal object, souvenir of memory and nostalgia, or historical artifact. This project explores how the past is appropriated as product in a Curiosities shop.
Elyse McNiff: Home is where the Empty Lot Is. This project
embraces the “eye sore” landscape of Providence as a platform for imagination by photographing a dollhouse in vacant spaces recalled by community members.
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Adj Marshall: Wasteland Twinning site for Providence RI. Wasteland Twinnings hijacks the concept of ‘City Twinning’ and applies it to urban Wastelands in order to generate a network for parallel research and action.
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About the Explorer
Anna Ghublikian: "Part One: The Raven and the Dove", A musical program inspired by Sarah Helen Whitman, written by Anna Ghublikian with special guest Lora-Faye and the support of the Rhode Island Historical Society. Final project as part of AMCV 1904L: Cultural Heritage, Curation, and Creativity.
Anya Ventura with collaborator Anther Kiley: "FRAGMENTS: "True" Stories from the lives of Ancient Objects", installation including an audio tour and printed guide that mixes fact and fiction to tell "true" stories from the lives of 7 objects in the Rhode Island School of Design Museum's ancient collection.
Anya Ventura with collaborator Carolyn Gennari: "The WonderShow", presented at Pencha Kucha plans for reviving the 19th century magic lantern show -- an antiquated way of projecting images before the advent of cinema.
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Elysian McNiff: "New England Founation for the Arts Public Art Discussion Series." Sessions included, "New Media and Emerging Technologies"; "Materials Mania"; "Strategies in Community Engagement"; "Negotiations, Copyright and Contracts with Jim Grace".
view the series website
Anna Ghublikian, Amy Karwoski, Adj Marshall, Elyse McNiff, Rainey Tisdale, Sarah Yahm: "You are here: Archiving Providence in the Present", imagining an alternate version of the city archive.
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FULL HOUSE: Domesticity in the Hopkins Family Home, for AMCV 1903Z: Shrine, House or Home, rethinking the House Museum Paradigm. With support of the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America.
Reservoir of Memories: A Community Collection About Mashapaug, for AMCV 1903G, Oral History and Community Memory, in collaboration with the Urban Pond Procession and the Environmental Justice League of Rhode Island.
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Erin Boyle, Adrian Moore, Katilynne Ward, Shana Weinberg, "Listen Closely: Stories of a Lifetime". A series of interactive performances that share moments from oral history interviews, which were recorded in 2007 during StoryCorps' visit to Rhode Island.
Capital Ideas, for AMCV 1550: Methods in Public Humanities.
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Seeing Ourselves, Showing Ourselves, Brown's Culture on Display, an independent group project by students in the Public Humanities Program
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Displaying Activism,for AMCV 0190W: Displaying Activism Then and Now: Making an Exhibition for Social Justice
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Eluise Nuding, Hollis Mickey, and Ian Russell: The Archive and the Ephemeral.
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Amy Atticks, Erin Boyle, Sara Emmenecker, Kathryn Higgins, Al Lees, Anya Ventura, and Shana Weinberg, Cultural Heritage Residency in the West Offaly Heritages project in Offaly, Ireland
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Krystal Appiah, African American Providence: An Exhibit and Walking Tour for AMCV2220A: Digital Scholarship.
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Amy Atticks and Meghan Townes,"I Was There" Archives for AMCV2220A: Digital Scholarship.
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Erin Boyle, Farmer Voices for AMCV2220A: Digital Scholarship.
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Erin Boyle, Apprentice Oral History Project at Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture.
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Erin Boyle, Letters on Transit Street for AMCV2653: Public Art: History, Theory and Practice.
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Sara Emmenecker, Recent Past Providence for AMCV2220A: Digital Scholarship.
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Caitlin Fisher, A Digital Exploration of Multiraciality for AMCV2220A: Digital Scholarship.
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Lucia Lopez and Kathryn Higgins, Archiving the Stalls for AMCV2220A: Digital Scholarship.
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Micah Salkind, Afro-Surreal Synesthesia for MCM1700R: Curating Contemporary Art.
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Micah Salkind, Spring of ‘17 for AMCV2220A: Digital Scholarship.
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Esteban Ucrós, Vagamundo: the Life and Journeys of Jorge Montesdeoca for AMCV2220A: Digital Scholarship.
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Shana Weinberg and Kaitlynne Ward, Historical Houses 2.0 for AMCV2220A: Digital Scholarship.
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Food on the Move, independent group project by students in the public humanities program.
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InDependence: Liberty, Slavery and Choice at the Stephen Hopkins House, a historic site interpretation plan for AMCV1903Z: Shrine, House or Home: Rethinking the House Museum Paradigm.
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Lots in Limbo for AMCV1550: Methods in Public Humanities.
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Small Bites, independent group project by students in the public humanities program.
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Art+History, independent group project by students in the public humanities program.
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