The History of Northfield’s League of Women Voters

Professor Serena Zabin and her students collaborated with the Northfield League of Women Voters to create a website on the League’s history. In addition, the class created a digital handbook to help other leagues create their own histories. In April 2019, Professor Zabin and two students presented their website and handbook at the League of Women Voters state conference celebrating the centennial of the organization. Grace Rubin ’20, Hiba Jama ’20 and Nicki Harris ’20 completed a documentary on the Northfield League’s history in August 2020.

Collaboration on Field Work in Greece

Professor Alex Knodell conducted collaborative fieldwork with students and local researchers in Greece. The project, “The Small Cycladic Islands Project (SCIP)” is a collaboration between Carleton College, the Norwegian Institute at Athens, and the Greek Ministry of Culture.

The islands the project focuses on are currently uninhabited, and have had a variety of uses throughout their history. The project seeks to document the landscape using intensive, multi-disciplinary survey techniques, and to situate them in content of wider regional activity examined by archaeology. The project utilizes traditional archaeological fieldwork in addition to ethnographic interviews with local communities.

The Constellation of the Commons: Collecting the Stories of Spanish Grassroots Activists

After five years of research, Professor Palmar Álvarez-Blanco created a bilingual audiovisual archive of communities with anticapitalist aspirations and grassroots practices that operate in Spain. This collection of testimonies forms a purposeful horizon of good news that, at the same time, celebrates successes and feeds the engine of hope with stories of community. The Constellation of the Commons not only benefits people who are studying the formation of grassroots movements and organizations in contemporary Spain, but also facilitates a space in which the organizations and movements can find experiences, references, and models that aid in their development.

The Wandering House

The Wandering House is a mobile audio-recording studio, fashioned out of a retrofitted ice fishing house, that collected Northfielders’ oral testimonies during summer and fall of 2019. Under the guidance of Professor Cecilia Cornejo, local community members were asked to share their ideas and ideals of home and how immigration, and the influx of people perceived as different, have affected these notions. Participants were also be invited to share their own family stories of immigration.

Census on Campus

Professor Debby Walser-Kuntz collaborated with Professor Adrienne Falcon, of Metropolitan State University, and Professor Lena Jones, of Minneapolis Community & Technical College, to facilitate a two-day institute to promote education on and engagement with the 2020 Census on college campuses and their surrounding communities around Minnesota. In conjunction with the institute, they created a website of educational material about and action plans for the census.

The Panel Story: The Life of a Community

This project, led by Professor Iveta Jusova, sought to produce and preserve knowledge about the life of a neighborhood community at the U Opavice street in the small Czech town of Opava, where Professor Jusova was born and raised.

Histories of the US/Mexico Border

Professor Elena McGrath’s project developed a new academic civic engagement course, History 275: History of the US/Mexico Border. This course engaged Carleton students with the Latinx community of Northfield and involved mapping collaborations between Carleton and local organizations. Through this course, students learned the contentious history of the North American borderlands region from both Mexican and US-centered perspectives.

Returning Home: An Artist’s Book Collaboration with the Nisei Veterans Committee of Seattle

Professor Fred Hagstrom published his artist’s book, Returning Home. Created in collaboration with the Nisei Veterans Committee of Seattle, Returning Home tells the story of Shiro Kashino, a Japanese-American World War II veteran who, despite being highly decorated, faced systemic discrimination that led to his dishonorable discharge. Professor Hagstrom’s work seeks to honor and celebrate his legacy.

Documentation and Preservation of German Conductor Kurt Masur Archives

Professor Juliane Schicker, is one of the first organizers of the Kurt Masur archive, which allows worldwide public access to Masur’s master class material, conversations between Masur and his colleagues, and socio-political topics such a the place of art and artists on both sides of the Iron Curtain. The project is part of an ongoing effort to strengthen the relationships between Carleton College and the International Kurt Masur Institute.

Art and Democracy Seminar: Partnering with Community Activists

Professor Ross Elfline partnered with Sam Gould and his organization, Beyond Repair, to connect students from his Art and Democracy seminar to activist artists in Minneapolis. This project asked the students to actually practice democracy by working collaboratively, not only with one another, but with community leaders and activists in the diverse Chicago-Lake district of Minneapolis.

Web Platform for Music Podcasts

In Professor Megan Sarno’s course, MUSC 121: Songs of Love, State, and Self, students produced song analyses in the form of podcasts. With a course emphasis in how music functions in culture, these podcasts invite reflection on the musical practices, group membership, and sense of identity of people who listen to music, no matter where they are. By asking her students to produce podcasts, Professor Sarno sought to make their research more accessible to a wider audience. To further that goal, Professor Sarno collaborated with Digital Humanities Assistant Director Austin Mason and Digital Technologist Celeste Sharpe to create a public website to host her students’ podcast analyses.