Public History @ Daemen

Did you know that Daemen has a Minor in Public History? 

This fall, Professor Lenora Henson will be teaching the required introductory course for this minor: HST211: Intro to Public History (Wednesdays, from 4:00-6:55pm). Henson holds several roles at the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site (website: TR Site), the only National Park Service site in Western New York. In addition to her role as Deputy Director of the TR SIte, she is also Director of Public Programming and Curator of the museum. She oversees student interns and has mentored a number of Daemen students who pursued careers in public history. HST211 enables students to explore the field of public history by learning about the many ways that historical knowledge and skills can be applied "outside of the academy" (that is, outside of educational institutions). 

Professor Henson with public history students & alumni (2018 banquet)

The field of public history is broad, including historians who work in museums, historical societies, public and private archives, and other areas. A number of our department's graduates are working in public history. (Tyler Vanice (History '15), Kaleigh Ratliff (History & Political Science, '13), Amy Grimes (History & Political Science, '14), and Emily Kraft (History, '16), among others.

If you are interested in exploring the career opportunities or learning more about the field of public history, or about the Public History minor, contact Dr. Penny Messinger.

Amy Grimes--alumni guest blog post

Amy Grimes received her BA in History & Political Science from Daemen in 2014. This past spring, she completed her MA in Museum Studies (with concentration in Visitor Experience and education) from SUNY Buffalo State College. In this guest blog post, Amy writes about her project and the focus of her graduate degree.

Amy Grimes

By Amy Grimes:

For my degree, I completed a research project about 982 refugees who came to Fort Ontario in Oswego, New York, from Naples, Italy, on August 3, 1944. For the project, "The Story of Oswego Refugees: A Virtual Exhibit," I focused on why they were chosen to come and their journey, their time at Fort Ontario, how they were able to stay in the United States, and how their story is preserved and remembered to the present day. The project included the creation of a digital exhibit as well as a seventy-page research paper.

(courtesy Safe Haven Holocaust Refugee Museum brochure)

From this project, I learned that this was the only group of refugees fleeing from the Nazi regime who were allowed to come to the United States during the war. Since I chose to create a digital exhibit, I learned how to create a website to feature key images and research from my master’s thesis.

(from The Oswego Palladium Times, March 1, 2014)

Based on my experiences at Daemen, both with my degree and involvement in the History and Government Club, I realized that I enjoy education, museums, and interacting with people. Since I wanted to stay in the Western New York area, I chose to go to SUNY Buffalo State since it is the only school in the area that offers a master’s program in this field.

You can read Amy's full research paper at: https://digitalcommons.buffalostate.edu/museumstudies_projects/10/

...and you can view the digital exhibit here: 

https://oswego-refugees.my-free.website/https://oswego-refugees.my-free.website

Welcome Dr. Karolina Krasuska!

Dr. Krasuska

Dr. Karolina Krasuska has joined the faculty of the History & Political Science Department this semester as a Visiting Assistant Professor of History through faculty exchange with the American Studies Center at the University of Warsaw, Poland. She will be at Daemen through early October and is co-teaching our 20th Century European history class (HST206) with Dr. Andrew Wise.

Dr. Krasuska is an expert in cultural studies, gender analysis, and transnational literature. Her teaching portfolio at the University of Warsaw includes classes on cultural studies, masculinities, American Jewishness, and literature.

Dr. Krasuska will give two public lectures during her visit: 

• Women in the Holocaust on Monday, September 11, 7:00pm at Canisius College Regis Rooms
• POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews on Tuesday, October 3, 7:00pm at Daemen College Research & Information Commons (RIC), Room 120 (Palisano Room). The POLIN Museum opened in 2014 at the site of the former Warsaw Ghetto. The museum will be familiar to students who have participated in recent Polish Study-Abroad classes led by Dr. Wise.  

Dr. Krasuska's public lectures are part of an extensive series of events marking Buffalo's 2017 Polish Cultural Festival, arranged in collaboration with multiple educational and community organizations (including Daemen College) and publicized through the Permanent Chair of Polish Studies at Canisus College. Four of the events in this series will be hosted by Daemen College:

• September 14-October 27: Exhibition of Artworks by Polish artist Wieslaw Skibinski at Karamanoukian Gallery, Haberman Gagioch Arts Center, Daemen College. Opening reception on Thursday, September 14, 5:00-7:00 pm. Free and open to the public.
• September 17: Jedliniok Folk Dance Group of Wroclaw: 3:00pm at the Daemen College Wick Center Social Room. A performance of the Polish academic song and dance ensemble. Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the door, $10 for students. Tickets are available at the Am-Pol Eagle Offices, 3620 Harlem Rd; call 983-5084 or 681-0813. 
• September 19: Raise the Roof--screening at 7:00pm at Daemen's Research and Information Commons (RIC) Room 120 (Palisano Room). This documentary film explores the reconstruction of the roof and bimah of the 18th Century Wooden Synagogue in Gwozdziec (formerly in Poland), by artists Rick and Laura Brown, which is now the center of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. The documentary is by Tari & Cary Wolinsky and is presented courtesy of the National Center for Jewish Film. Copyright Trillium Studios. Find more information at: www.polishsynagogue.com/movietrailer/
• October 3: Dr. Karolina Krasuska's lecture on POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews--7:00pm at Daemen College Research & Information Commons (RIC), Room 120 (Palisano Room). The POLIN Museum opened in 2014 at the site of the former Warsaw Ghetto.

Join us in welcoming Dr. Krasuska to Daemen College!


Dr. Krasuska's faculty profile from the University of Warsaw:

Karolina Krasuska is Assistant Professor at American Studies Center at the University of Warsaw and also a member of the research group “Gender and Literature” at the Institute for Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences. She holds a PhD in Cultural Studies from European University Viadrina, Frankfurt/Oder (2010). She is the author of a book-length study examining modernist literature from a transnational, gender-oriented perspective, published in Polish as Płeć i naród: Trans/lokacje. Maria Komornicka/Piotr Odmieniec Włast, Else Lasker-Schüler, Mina Loy (Warszawa 2012). She is also the Polish translator of Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble (Uwikłani w płeć, Warszawa 2008). Her most recent publication is the collection Women and the Holocaust: New Perspectives and Challenges (Warszawa 2015), which she co-edited with Andrea Petö and Louise Hecht.

Public History students at the MANY Conference

Emily Kraft (History, '16) and Taqiyah Gibbons (History, '18) pose with Don Wildman,
host of the Travel Channel show, "Mysteries at the Museum." Wildman was
the keynote speaker at the conference. 

On April 17-19, Daemen students Emily Kraft and Taqiyah Gibbons attended the annual conference of the Museum Association of New York (MANY), held at Lake Placid. Both Emily and Taqiyah are History majors and Public History minors who learned about MANY while taking Introduction to Public History last semester with Professor Lenora Henson, who is also Curator and Director of Public Programming at the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural site and a regular participant in the Museum Association of New York. She encouraged Emily and Taqiyah to attend the conference at a reduced rate as student volunteers. As Henson explained, "In addition to seeking out internships (which any student interested in exploring a museum career should do as soon as possible), attending a professional conference is a great way to learn more about a field and see if it feels 'right'. It's also a great place to get a head start on networking." 

"I was very excited to learn about a networking opportunity for exactly the field I was interested in," Kraft wrote. "Before talking to Professor Henson, I did not realize New York held such a conference; as a student graduating in May, I am interested in any opportunity to get myself in the field and begin to prepare for my future. As a student I was excited about who I would meet and what is currently being discussed in the field."

A view of Lake Placid, a major recreation destination and site of the 1980 Winter Olympics. 

"All in all the conference was a great opportunity to network and put ourselves out there in the field," Kraft explained. "Professor Henson was a big help and she introduced us to many of her colleagues in the field. It would be so nice to see other students go in the future and use the trip as professional exposure."

Kraft and Gibbons met students, faculty, and museum professionals from across the state. Kraft, who is currently exploring graduate programs, learned more about several master's degree programs in Museum Studies, including Syracuse University's: "I was able to network and find out what the program is like. I plan to research further and keep this as a possibility for grad school."

Kraft integrated her new knowledge about museum programming into her Academic Festival presentation on April 20. The presentation was based upon research she did at Warsaw's Museum of the History of Polish Jews for her senior thesis project, which she completed in December 2015. As Kraft explained, museums are rushing to adjust to the expectations of the millennial generation with more interactive, digital, and online components, which creates opportunities in the field for college graduates with relevant skills.

History & Politics Speaker Series: Dr. Erica Lehrer on "Jewish Poland Revisited: Heritage Tourism in Unquiet Places"

Faculty of the History and Political Science Department cordially invite you to the next lecture in the History & Politics Speaker Series

Prof. Erica Lehrer

Jewish Poland Revisited: Heritage Tourism in Unquiet Places

Monday, 26 October 2015

7:00 pm

Wick Alumni Lounge

Generously funded and sponsored by Collegiate Village

Jewish heritage revival in Poland is a phenomenon that has attracted a great deal of attention and provoked many controversies. American cultural anthropologist Erica Lehrer ventures into this territory, both fascinating and fraught with tension, giving a fresh glimpse into the backstage of the Jewish heritage industry.

Dr. Erica Lehrer

Prof. Erica Lehrer is a socio-cultural anthropologist and curator. She is currently Associate Professor in the departments of History and Sociology-Anthropology and Canada Research Chair in Museum & Heritage Studies at Concordia University, Montreal. She is the author (among other publications) of Jewish Poland Revisited: Heritage Tourism in Unquiet Places (Indiana University Press, 2013), and editor (with Michael Meng) of Jewish Space in Contemporary Poland (2015). In 2013 she curated the exhibit “Souvenir, Talisman, Toy” at the Seweryn Udziela Ethnographic Museum in Krakow, and in 2014 published the accompanying book Lucky Jews and the online exhibit www.luckyjews.com.

Alumna Profile: Kaleigh Ratliff Pursues Graduate Work in Museum Studies at The George Washington University

Kaleigh Ratliff (B.A., History & Government, 2013) traveled to Przemyśl, Poland, in March 2013 and again in July 2013 with a student exchange group from Daemen. Kaleigh's work in Poland illustrated her interest in extending her Daemen education beyond the classroom.  She helped put in place the digital humanities project that will preserve images and data from the Jewish cemetery in Przemyśl. This work continues today, with seven Daemen students travelling to Poland in June/July 2015.

In addition to her major in History & Government, Kaleigh completed a minor in Public History and had internships at the Smithsonian Institution (through the Washington Internship Institute, for which she was a Daemen Student Ambassador) and at the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site.

To learn more about the Polish Studies Program and Daemen's study abroad program in Poland, contact Dr. Andrew Kier Wise (awise@daemen.edu) .  If you are interested in learning more about Daemen's Public History minor, contact Dr. Penny Messinger (pmessing@daemen.edu). 

Kaleigh now attends graduate school at G.W.

Kaleigh recently provided us with this update about her career, in which she reflects back on her time at Daemen:

My life after Daemen has been exciting and productive. I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel that I call school, and I am almost ready to begin my career as a Collections Manager. 

After I traveled to Poland with Dr. Wise and the rest of the Daemen crew in the summer of 2013, my intention was to go straight on to graduate school. Unfortunately, that did not happen. With an unexpected gap year ahead of me, I decided to join AmeriCorps, volunteering at the Essex County Historical Society / Adirondack History Museum. I served for a year, gaining both volunteer and museum experience. I worked on the development of exhibits and programs, I made efforts to organize and inventory the archives, and I worked as a receptionist. I was also able to serve the greater community, working at surrounding AmeriCorps events. My time with AmeriCorps was a great resume builder! 

While volunteering, I applied to graduate schools for a second time. Thankfully I was accepted into the MA Museum Studies program at the George Washington University. In the fall of 2014 I moved to Maryland and began the next stage of my education. I am currently beginning my second and final year in the program. I have completed my two required internships, one with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the other with the Jewish Museum of Maryland. Along with my concentration in Collections Management, I have been studying the Holocaust and WWII. My classes are amazing and the professors are even better. This program has been a perfect fit for me. I love D.C. and the greater area, and I plan to stay here permanently. 

I honestly believe that without my experience in Poland and my AmeriCorps service I would not have been accepted into graduate school. Programs are competitive and many applicants are almost identical. It is important to situate yourself apart from the rest. Be conscious about your resume and diversify your experience. My resume to-do-list includes becoming a notary and getting my CDL license. It sounds strange, but they could be useful to an employer. 

I am looking forward to graduating and starting my career. I feel prepared and encouraged for what the future holds, largely due to my Daemen education.

Kaleigh Ratliff

H&G Club & PLSA take to the road

The History & Government Club and Pre-Law Student Association are clubs on the move!

Members of the H&G Club and the Pre-Law Student Association check out the "Mummies" exhibit at the Buffalo Museum of Science in October 2014

This fall, the clubs have undertaken several field trips into the Western New York community. Below are some photographs from three of this fall's voyages into the local community: the "Trial of the Century" event in September (a film reenactment of Leon Czolgosz's trial for assassinating President William McKinley); a visit to the "Mummies of the World" exhibit at the Buffalo Museum of Science (early October), and a trip to Letchworth State Park on October 24.

Club members are planning more activities for the fall--contact H&G Club officers (President Carla Hernandez, Vice President Zahra Nayyeri, Secretary-Treasurer Jessica Mark, and PR Coordinator Nigel Haynes) or PLSA officers (President Jordan Sieracki, Vice President Tyler Vanice, Secretary-Treasurer Taqiyah Gibbons, or PR Coordinator Nigel Haynes) if you would to join the fun. 

H&G Club members Jessica Mark, Zahra Nayyeri, Carla Hernandez, and Anthony Olan attend the "Trial of the Century"

Buffalo Museum of Science

Buffalo Museum of Science

Current (and alumni) members of the H&G Club pose near one of the beautiful waterfalls at Letchworth State Park

 

Fall colors at Letchworth State Park

Fall wildflowers at Letchworth

 

Letchworth State Park

Mastodon skull at Lethworth

Log cabin at Letchworth State Park

Mary Jemison state, Letchworth State Park

(Photos courtesy of Zahra Nayyeri)

What I Did Last Summer, Guest Blog by Tyler Vanice

Tyler Vanice is a History major (class of ’15) and Public History minor. In this guest blog post, he writes about his summer job working in public history.  His job built upon his 2013 internship with the George Washington Masonic National Memorial. Learn more about Daemen's many internship opportunities here. 

 

Tyler Vanice

ByTyler Vanice:

Last year I was accepted into the Washington Internship Institute and interned at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Alexandria, VA. This spring, the Curator and Executive Director of the Memorial called me and offered me a job since they had liked my work as an intern. I couldn’t hold my excitement when I heard the news. I told them that I still have another year of school as I interned a year earlier than most people (in my sophomore year) but they were happy I was willing to work at least for the summer.

Some of my work this summer was tedious – like the weeks-long project of digitizing records from one Masonic Lodge. It was a long process that included chopping off the spines of the books, then feeding the pages into a machine, and waiting for the machine to complete its optical character recognition (OCR). This process was not difficult, but it was time-consuming. I learned the hard way to always make sure that the computer settings were correct when I had to rescan 120 books after I did not notice that the settings had changed. 

When I had finally finished digitizing, I was finally able to do the work I enjoyed the most, which was cataloging and inventorying the Memorials collection. The museum had received a large collection containing thousands of items from the Masonic Service Association (MSA). This included correspondence and various records dating back to the early 1920’s. These records were rescued from destruction; the MSA was clearing space to make room for new management and the records were being discarded before the Curator of the Memorial intervened. There was so many items that we didn’t know what to do with them so we left the project for another time. I was able to do a basic inventory before we quit. 
 

Artifacts awaiting processing

For the last month of my stay I was asked to sort and organize the file room for the Memorial since it had become a mess. I did not know what I got myself into when I agreed to take the task; it took me weeks to complete. I finished just in time for a researcher to use the room. 

I never realized how tiresome it is to work in a museum! I was told that when working in a museum, a person wears many hats and I found that out the hard way! I had enjoyed my experience down in D.C. just as much as I did the year before. I always enjoyed working with artifacts and being able to “play” with history. It was exciting to work alongside the Curator of the Memorial in all the projects that needed to be done.

D.C. is a marvelous place to be and I recommend everyone who has never visited should do so. For a person who enjoys working in museums, I sure had found the right place! The area offers a lot of history and places to visit; from the National Mall to George Washington’s tomb, D.C. offers a little bit of everything to everyone.

 
From researching, to cleaning, to stripping wax off the floors, I accomplished a lot over the summer. After working hard all summer and walking up the hill for work in the 90+ degree weather every day, I can say I had fun and enjoyed my experience as much as my first time I went down.  And in the end, it was worth all the work because I heard the magic words that everyone wants to hear; “I’d like to have you back next year.” 

It is a great relief to know that after I graduate from Daemen, that I will have a job waiting for me. D.C. offers a lot of different opportunities and I have the Washington Internship Institute to thank for giving me the chance to leave Buffalo and experience a new world.

Photos courtesy of Tyler Vanice