2024-2025 Academic Year in Review

"Since time is the one immaterial object which we cannot influence - neither speed up nor slow down, add to nor diminish - it is an imponderably valuable gift."--Maya Angelou

This post will help me — and maybe others — look back later and see patterns, growth, and pivots. It’s a working log for future learning.

Fall 2024 Highlights

Teaching

Fall was a lesson in time. Here's the syllabi:

QRiD

I was a Faculty Fellow in MC's Quantitative Reasoning in the Disciplines Program (QRiD) in 2023-24'. The project changed a great deal since the proposal phase.

My final project continued to evolve this school year, both for online formats as well as in-person.

When my teaching assignment expanded to include both African American History courses (HIST 235 and HIST 236), it presented a valuable opportunity to refine my QRiD project. I redesigned it to serve as a research bridge between the two classes. Although students in each course do not meet in person, they are able to contribute to one another’s research asynchronously during designated workshop days. Through these sessions, they share suggested readings, raise important questions, and build upon each other’s insights.

The Last Seen database quickly became the primary focus for the program's archive. Here is a description of the project from the site: "Launched in 2017, Last Seen initially aimed to publish 1,000 ads from a handful of newspapers published in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War to help document the transition from slavery to freedom. The project now includes over 3,500 ads spanning eight decades from 275 newspapers. Our goal is to publish 5,000 ads."

The database contains sources from both before and after the Civil War, offering a rich (and free) online archive for teaching about the social, cultural, political, and economic legacies of slavery in everyday Black life. Recently, Last Seen’s founder, Judith Giesberg, published a book about the archive entitled Last Seen: The Enduring Search by Formerly Enslaved People to Find Their Lost Families. Students in the second half of the African American History survey course are often surprised to discover articles from the 1920s and 1930s that reflect the continued dedication of family members seeking lost loved ones decades after emancipation.

Over the course of the semester, students analyze at least three different ads from the archive and then select one for their final presentation. Their projects must align with at least one of the course objectives (listed below). Through weekly readings—including primary source labs—quizzes, and a research workshop with the campus library, students learn how individual stories intersect with major historical events.

The quantitative reasoning component of the QRiD project requires students to develop visual tools (e.g., numeric, spatial, or chronological) that contextualize the historical significance of their findings. Students may earn extra credit by visiting the Library of Congress and/or the National Archives to conduct further research. Those who do so are asked to bring back researcher cards as proof and to incorporate best practices shared by subject specialist librarians.

P. Gabrielle Forman's Colored Conventions Project inspired me to start using Black Digital Archives in the classroom. Dr. Foreman visited the University of Iowa when I was in my last years of grad school. Her work demonstrated what was possible. Digitization is a mode not only of preservation, but of recuperation, and memory work too. Foreman's work is what inspired me to build OER lists (African History and African American History) while working from home during the pandemic. The process of building those lists and touring databases is how I found Last Seen. The databases on those lists---especially Colored Conventions Project--also are additional research resources for students.

QRiD Co-Facilitator

I became a co-facilitator in the program in Fall of 2024. QRiD has been a great space to collaborate, grow, and connect. Our program included faculty from Communications, Language Arts, Counseling, Mathematics, Chemistry, and History. Great team. Rich conversations. Thoughtful projects.

Here are a couple of my favorite resources from this past year:

• Numeracy (open access, peer reviewed, online journal)

• The Data Notebook Copyright © 2021 by Peace Ossom-Williamson and Kenton Rambsy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

Gen Ed Certification

In the Fall I authored the successful recertification of HIST 265 and HIST 266. I also contributed materials toward GEC for HIST 235 and HIST 236.

Successful GEC means the courses continue to meet standards and students can continue to enroll in courses.

Full-Time Faculty Review

In Fall and Spring I completed my Full-Time Faculty Review, which consisted of a self evaluation, classroom reviews (in-person and online); a peer review, and leadership reviews (Chair and Dean). The process closed with strong support and reappointment. In Fall of 2025, I'll enter my 6th year at MC.

Special Project

The semester ended with an invitation to work on a special project for the school. This multiyear initiative has been a great opportunity to learn about MC and the landscape of higher ed, in general. I'm grateful for the chance to continue to grow where I am.

Winter Highlights

Determined to Be: The Sculpture of John Rhoden

Birmingham Museum of Art

January 9, 6 - 7pm

"Join us for this discussion of John Rhoden’s Birmingham, the subject of the BMA exhibition, Determined to Be: The Sculpture of John Rhoden. This program will begin with Rhoden’s early challenges and triumphs, including growing up in Birmingham and attending  Parker High School, and will highlight his later public sculptures in the city when he returned as an acclaimed international artist. 

This panel will feature historian and catalogue author Dr. Sylvea Hollis on Rhoden’s Smithfield community; UAB professor Dr. Penny Seals on Parker High School in the 1930s;  Wayne Coleman, Head of Archives at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, on Rhoden’s sculpture of Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth for the BCRI; and Dr. Brittany Webb, exhibition curator from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, on Rhoden’s early exposure to sculptural practice and his connection to Legion Field. Participants will also receive a map of Birmingham locations discussed during the talk to continue the exploration across the City." --Birmingham Museum of Art Website

Spring 2025 Highlights

Collaborations

A few times this school year I co-presented with colleagues either via our respective courses and/or during programming.

Teaching

 Students turned in some of the strongest final presentations to date. Samples from Student's Work with Last Seen Database:

Original Ad:

The Southwestern Christian Advocate (New Orleans, LA). February 26, 1884.

Source: Frances Johnson, Statement to J.M. Kelly (Notary Public), March 1865, Records of the Assistant Commissioner for the State of Tennessee, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and

Abandoned Lands, 1865–1869, Registered Letters Received, Entered in Register 1, E – L, Roll 7, 1865. NMAAHC.FB.M999.