My Plan

Over the break I intend to go to the library and check out most of the materials that I need for my thesis paper and take further notes on what I could use in the final draft. I also intend to work with my advisors, and search online, asking how I can create an exhibit base on my topic. A major part of my thesis is creating an outline for an exhibit based on what the city of Rochester's role was during World War 1. I want to show both the contributions that the service members made in Europe and highlight the actions taken by the city here on the home front. I want to show what was going on in the war such as the battles then focus on the individual members from Rochester who served so the people viewing the hypothetical exhibit would be able to learn about their city's history and how Rochester was an active part in the Great War. Hopefully with time dedicated solely on my thesis paper, over the break, I will be able to gather more information and may even gain a head start on the final paper before the beginning of the next semester.

Intersession - Back to the Burchfield

Over the winter break, I plan on taking advantage of the time and location to make at least one visit to the Burchfield Penney archives to continue my research. My research will be driven by the direction my advisors and I decide to go in went we all meet together for the first time on Thursday. A major point of my thesis to resolve is determining what software I will use to develop my database. This discussion is critical to have now in order to make sure it can be supported by the archives. Additionally, the end users will have to be considered - is this going to be used by the archives only or will it be publicly accessible? The answers to these questions will likely lead to proposal revisions and may result in a section being added to the literature review. Research questions to continuously keep in my mind are what categories to include and the what is the scope of the artists' careers that I would like to include. Hopefully, the additional research and consultation will allow me to actually start constructing my final deliverable.

Winter (not-really-a-)Break

Over the winter break I plan on revising my literature review and reviewing what I’ve read to find the strongest connections to my thesis topic. In doing this, I can begin to create a clearer outline of how my thesis will be laid out and what I will focus my writing around. In this time I will also begin forming a set of public history values/goals from what I’ve read, so that I can have a standard to compare to the podcasts I will be examining. Speaking of the podcasts themselves, in this time I will also be listening to and taking notes on the podcasts in my case study (Hardcore History, Backstory Radio, The Memory Palace, More Perfect, and Fall of Rome). As far as allocating time to these goals, I believe that many of them may be achieved simultaneously, as in reviewing my current readings I will find my strongest connections, create an outline, and pick up on the values and goals of public history that I want to focus on. Also, I already listen to podcasts all the time, so swapping my usuals out for these specific podcasts will fit into my established routine.

One of the biggest thing I want to focus on in this time though is a bit of a new direction in my research. I’ve been assuming all this time that podcasts are a form of public history and have been seeking to examine how they function as such. While I still believe and aim to do that, I have been wondering recently if podcasts function as well as a sort of accessible form of academic history. While you could say that that is what public history is in itself, I wonder if the podcast does not give an entertaining and accessible platform for audio essays that seem to take on a more academic form rather than strictly public? Or that more immediately connects the two realms? This could just be a quick tangent in my research or a new direction of focus, but either way I intend to determine this over the break so that when the new semester begins I can fully concentrate on writing rather than exploring every new idea.

It has been an interesting start to my thesis so far, and I look forward to the upcoming break and semester! Let’s see if I ever want to listen to a podcast again after this project (hint: I definitely will).

LINKS
Every time I try to hyperlink something, Blogger encounters an error, so here are just a few links to the webpages of the podcasts I will be listening to:

Hardcore History: http://www.dancarlin.com/hardcore-history-series/
Backstory Radio: http://backstoryradio.org/
The Memory Palace: http://thememorypalace.us/
More Perfect: http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolabmoreperfect/
The Fall of Rome: https://fallofromepodcast.wordpress.com/

Plans for Winter Break

I am looking forward to Winter Break to get a decent amount of headway on my thesis. This semester has been full of difficulties when it comes to being able to put enough time into my project so this break will be a wonderful way to get thoroughly into this project. I hope to expand on my lit review during this break and go to the Rochester Museum and Science Center to look at their Latino Archives to learn more about the Puerto Rican community in Rochester. I also hope to begin reaching out to various members of the Puerto Rican community in Rochester, including the Ibero-American Action League. I also hope to begin work on my ideas for the interview, including an interview guide and beginning to find people who would be willing to tell me their immigration stories. I would like to also get in touch with some of the local colleges cultural and diversity efforts to reach some of these people.

Scheduling will be the most difficult thing in this upcoming break as well as the semester with work and holidays coming up. I hope to be able to work around all of this and really focus on my thesis. This project is one that is so incredibly important to me and the fact that I have not been able to put in my full efforts and time into this is a struggle. I am incredibly excited to be able to give this project the work and devotion such a project deserves. 

Over break I hope to stay in contact with my primary adviser Dr. Michael Brown and with Dr. Carroll so that my Interview guide and ideas are all complacent with the Oral History Associations best practices as well as being culturally sensitive and relevant. I think this break will be a great time for me to truly focus in on my work and meet with the relevant people and cannot wait for it to start. 

Intersession Plans

I recently met with Deborah Stoiber my secondary advisor at the Eastman Museum and we discussed my thesis and possible case studies. While talking case studies she pulled up several student projects that could work. We went into the basement of the mansion and pulled out seven binders of past student projects. Deb allowed me to take all seven. My work for the end of the semester and into intersession includes me reading over the student projects and deciding if any of them will work for case studies. I am also planning to meet with another employee at Eastman to talk over financial records and what I am allowed to look at regarding my thesis. Deborah will be gone most of January so it will be difficult to go back to the museum over intersession but I hope to nail down my case studies before she is gone and before spring semester.

Winter Plans

Over winter break I plan to build upon my lit review by going over each review and writing 2 pages- one page for my detailed opinions on what the author(s) had to say and one page for how I think it relates to my thesis. The goals is to refine my lit review and begin formally writing a draft of my thesis in a manner that isn't so daunting. From here it should be easier to lay out what my thesis will look like more accurately; I will also be able to spot gaps in my writing easier. If I do 2 a week for 3 weeks (sorry, Xmas is designated family/me time), I'll get 6 done and make a significant dent. I think I'll focus the articles that focus on public markets/ RPM.

Pictured Above: The RPM local farmer and vendor on October 7th (Photo taken by me)

The other big thing I would like to do is visit RPM on January 2nd, 6th, 9th, and the 12th. On the 2nd and the 9th, I want to conduct interviews with RPM officials and/or vendors, which is easier to do on quiet days (Tuesdays), than on the weekends. The 6th and the 9th I will visit the RPM for participant observation- critically analyzing my experience, the behaviors of other visitors, and the overall atmosphere of RPM on those two days. From these I will write brief field reports detailing what I have learned.

Please let me know what you think of this plan; whether its too much or not enough. I'm more than willing to make changes if they will be more beneficial to my thesis. 

~Kayla

Winter Break Plans:

The work I do on my thesis over winter break depends mainly on what sort of feedback I get next week during critiques. Hopefully, I will have minimal changes to make to my literature review so I can focus my energy on break to doing more research on Massimo and Lella Vignelli and the history of the Vignelli Center for Design Studies. I am planning to complete the first draft of the section of my thesis focusing on the history of the Vignelli's, the establishment of the Vignelli Center at RIT, and a description of the scope of collections at the Vignelli Center. If I am way ahead of the game then I will also make plans to interview Jennifer Whitlock over winter break, but I won't know until after the critiques next week.

Looking Forward

As we come to the end of the semester, I have been doing a lot of thinking about what I can accomplish over winter break for my thesis project. I will be spending most of break at home in Poughkeepsie, so I would like to do my full assessment of the Kodak Archive before the end of the semester. I have a conference call scheduled with my former supervisor, Kristin Williams, next week to discuss goals for the project so I will have a clear direction moving forward and I will be able to tailor my recommendations to Kodak's needs.

My last day at Kodak during our winter internship, January 2017. Looking forward to getting back here soon! (picture taken by Alex Serpikov)

I will be using my free time at home to revise my thesis proposal and continue to gather sources. I will also be reaching out to some professional corporate archivists, both local and around the country, to hear their thoughts and advice on my approach to this project.

This has been a whirlwind of a semester, and I am looking forward to continuing my research and writing moving forward!

A Glance Back and a Short Look Forward

Well, this is it.  The end of my first semester of thesis work.  It seems like only yesterday that I was struggling to sort through all of my potential thesis ideas, yet here I am today, with my initial proposal submitted for feedback, writing my final post of the semester (and of 2017, I suppose).  While I have accomplished a lot over the course of the semester, my work on this project is far from finished and a good deal of it will have to be accomplished over the upcoming winter break.  This will include conducting interviews with members of the RMSC’s staff and local Native communities, before performing at least one (although it will probably end up being several) thorough survey of the Rochester Museum and Science Center’s (RMSC) Native Peoples of the Americas exhibit, with what I have been told in the interviews in mind (I already completed an initial, cursory survey over Thanksgiving Break).  I will also use this time, and the resources that have been provided to me by Kathryn Murano, Senior Director for Collections and Exhibits at the RMSC, to take a more focused look at the history of Native American collections and representation at the RMSC, in order to better understand how this exhibit fits with its fellows across the nation (as briefly outlined in my most current draft of my literature review).

With regards to finding the time to work on all of this, I will, of course, have to work my interviews and exhibit surveys around the various winter holidays that are coming up, and I have a strong suspicion that, in some cases, I will have to wait until at least just after New Year’s to make any major headway with regards to interviews.  Thankfully, I will be fairly flexible in my ability to take time to interview people, as I will be staying in Rochester for the entire break and have a semi-flexible work schedule during that time.  Because of this, I am not worried about setting a schedule for my thesis work at this time, as it will be easier to work around other people’s schedules than my own.

I’d like to take a moment to thank everyone who has helped me with this process and my project thus far, including Dr. Tamar Carroll, Kathryn Murano, and Dr. Juilee Decker, and wish everyone happy holidays.

While many of the photographs from my recent survey of the Native Peoples of the Americas exhibit turned out very dark due to the low lighting in the exhibit, my friend Skye Tryon did take this picture of me at the RMSC with a taxidermied pangolin, an endangered African and Asian mammal similar to an armored ant eater.  The pangolin is part of The Science of Ripley's Believe It or Not!® exhibit, which is on display at the RMSC until January 2, 2018.