Art & Public History
When a White Scholar’s Work is Not Cited: 1619
I don’t need an excuse to talk about the 1619 project . It’s so exciting! Synthetic works like this, which center groups that colonizer-history has…
Art & Public History
Public history was the blog’s other big subject. One writer helped draft the first U.S. nomination of a site, Nashville’s Fort Negley, to UNESCO’s Slave Route Project and then built an oral history archive around it. Others wrote about digital humanities projects, 3D printing, collaborative research with students, and art made in protest.
The Fort Negley posts now end with short updates, added in 2026, on what has happened since.
Art & Public History
Celebrating MLK Day in Nashville, TN
“… I am convinced that men hate each other because they fear each other. They fear each other because they don’t know each other, and they don’t…
Art & Public History
A Cross-Campus Collaboration: Mariannes Noires
On Friday afternoon, I went on a student-led campus tour of Fisk University with Mame-Fatou Niang (Associate Professor at Carnegie Mellon…
Art & Public History
The Role of Public Humanities in Reconciliation
There’s a type of generosity that exists, that causes me to tear up when I see it. It’s the type of generosity of spirit that is so magnanimous…
Art & Public History
Working with Students on DH Projects
I have recently recruited 6 students to work on a digital archival exhibit at my university.
Art & Public History
Does your Digital Humanities Project Have a Mission?
Most of you know that among many of the hats I wear, one of my favorites is director of the Fort Negley Descendants Project , a digital humanities…
Art & Public History
Subject Matter Expertise: Historians and Documentaries
Last month, I was approached by Joseph Hill, documentary filmmaker, about his current project on the United States Colored Troops (USCT) in the…
Art & Public History
37208: How the Rest of America Could Be, If We Wanted
Midsummer 2019 was the day I moved into my first house. The sky blackened as I drove a carload of belongings there.
Art & Public History
News Round-up: Nashville’s Fort Negley Receives UNESCO Slave Route Designation
We are all still shook. Two years ago, Fort Negley , a Union Civil War fort built by enslaved and free black laborers, and defended by the United…
Art & Public History
When There is a Mission
This March, I took two trips for work that ended up having a profound effect on the way I see my job and my place within it.
Art & Public History
Double Your Digital Archive
Picture the scene: You’re one of the founders of an oral history digital archive. The archive, the Fort Negley Descendants Project (FNDP) , finds and…
Art & Public History
First Impressions 15 years in the Making
Ah, February. The month that heralds the final demise of the dreaded January and when I can consider my semester officially off to a successful start.
Art & Public History
The Expressions of Freedom: Contemplating Anger
Despite being immensely inspired by Raquelle’s awesome post on “overcoming writing stalls” , I’ve had a difficult time being productive this week.
Art & Public History
Tools for Resistance: The Importance of Art, Research, and Writing
Although I’ve always tried to take an activist’s approach to art history and fought against the notion that it is inconsequential, there have been…
Art & Public History
3D Printing & The Digital Humanities
This semester, Vanderbilt’s new makerspace and center for innovation, the Wond’ry, approached us at the Slave Societies Digital Archive (SSDA)…
Art & Public History
Learning St. Louis
Note: want to write with us? See this post and apply by March 10! The bus bumped slowly through the sprawling shopping complex, squeezing past…
Art & Public History
Creation & Curation: The Fort Negley Oral History Archive
How a Vanderbilt working group began filming descendants of the builders and USCT defenders of Nashville’s Fort Negley to create an open-access…
Art & Public History
Drafting the First US Nomination to the UNESCO Slave Route Project: Nashville’s Fort Negley
A Nashville historian on researching and drafting the nomination of Fort Negley, the Union fort built by enslaved and free Black laborers, to…
Art & Public History
The #5womenartists Campaign for Women’s History Month
It’s March, and along with Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day, this month also marks the second year for the feminist art history…
Art & Public History
Smart Women Make Art: Five Urgent Works for a New Year
Hello all, and goodbye to 2016. This week, I have the honor of being the last to post at Smart Women Write before we all take a break until the…
Art & Public History
Finding Guidance in Activist Art History
This fall term, in my capacity as an adjunct instructor, I have been teaching an upper-level course of my own design called “Sex, Gender, and…
Art & Public History
The (somewhat uncomfortable) Process of Digital Storytelling & Teachable Moments
This post is Part 2 of a series on the Mellon Institute of Public and Digital Humanities. A special thanks to Allison Myers, Ryan Trauman, and…
Art & Public History
When the Public meets the Digital Humanities
This blog entry is part 1 of a two-part post reflecting about my experiences with the Mellon Institute in Digital and Public Humanities.