Campus Currents

October 7, 2024

Why Teach with Digital Humanities? Creating Critical Thinkers and Makers with Cultural Recovery

Tuesday, October 8, 2024 at 4:30 p.m. Heineman Ecumenical Center 

Roopika Risam will share her insights on digital ethnic studies in the classroom, offering a theoretical framework for engaging students with digital humanities and the literature, history, and culture of minoritized communities as she draws on assignments and projects developed during her nine years teaching at Salem State University. 

This event is co-sponsored by the Center for Digital Humanities with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Hybrid Event:
Zoom Registration Link: https://tinyurl.com/roopikarisam

Community Collecting Event and Scholar Talk: Jewish Immigrant Experience in the 1940s

Speaker: Professor Lori Gemeiner Bihler

Date/Time: October 8, 2024 5:00pm - 7:00pm (collecting event) and 7:00pm - 7:45pm (scholar talk)

Location: Village Hall, 2 Oak Street, Framingham Centre (40 parking spots available in front of building, additional parking available across the street at NorthEast Community Bank, 35 Edgell Road)

Description: The Framingham History Center and the Henry Whittemore Library will co-host a community collecting event and scholar talk centered around the experiences of Jewish immigrants arriving in the U.S. during the 1940s. The goal of the community collecting event is to provide area residents the opportunity to share meaningful artifacts and stories which the digital archivist can then capture and create an online digital collection. Visitors may bring up to three items to be photographed or scanned, such as old photographs, letters, postcards, pieces of clothing, textiles, and other artifacts. Artifacts pertaining to the theme of the Americans and the Holocaust traveling exhibition including the Holocaust, World War II, and local history during this time period, should relate to one's own experience or that of a family member. Once the artifact is scanned or photographed, the Henry Whittemore Library will create an online digital collection that will be available in our repository and serve a wonderful way to showcase the community's treasured memories for all to view.

The collective event will be followed by a presentation  given by Dr. Lori Gemeiner Bihler. Dr. Bihler is an Associate Professor of History at Framingham State University, where she teaches courses on modern European, U.S., and world history. Her research focuses on the refugee diaspora fleeing Nazi Germany before and during the war, as well as the role of race and religion on past migration and resettlement. Dr. Bihler is the author of Cities of Refuge: German Jews in London and New York, 1935-1945 (SUNY Press, 2018) and has received research fellowships from the British Council, the DAAD, and the Leo Baeck Institute. In addition, she is currently working on a book about history education and each spring semester, Dr. Bihler supervises matriculating social studies student teachers across the region.

Book Discussion: Prequel by Rachel Maddow

Facilitator: Weronika Zawora

Date/Time: October 9, 2024 1:30pm - 2:30pm

Location: Henry Whittemore Library, Room UM14, Framingham State University.

Description: Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism by Rachel Maddow is a 2023 book about fascist sympathizers in 1930s America including the Silver Legion of America, the American White Guard, the Christian Front, and the propaganda operation of Georg Vierick.

Weronika Zawora is the Outreach and Student Engagement Coordinator at the Henry Whittemore Library. Born in Poland, her family lost relatives in the Holocaust and she has visited numerous historical sites throughout the region related to the events of World War II, including several concentration camps. Since becoming a U.S. citizen two years ago, Ms. Zawora has become even more committed and passionate about learning how the past informs our choices in the present.

Copies of the book are available for borrowing to all Minuteman cardholders.