Exciting Day!

I was going to post earlier after our 8:30 HST 480 seminar this morning, but got caught up in the events of the day, but now that exciting thing number two has happened regarding this class, I cannot help but pull myself away from my thesis on the thought of Pierre Manent to post.

First things first, this morning in class, my fellow public historians in training, Ed and Kelly produced what has seemed like the hardest things to find, yet, in my mind at least, one of the central parts of our research project--AN ALTERNATIVE to the I-496 interstate!  While it is not the exact portion of the expressway we have been working with, the fact that an alternative indeed exists means that MDOT did at least consider alternatives to the route. Also this alternative is labeled as "2" which means there has to be a first somewhere, even if we can't find it.

Along these same lines, I discovered amidst the files my father has been sending me, construction/acquisition files from 1966 when the portion we are concerned with (33047 is the official code number I believe) was built! One of the files is labeled "removal items" and details what must be removed from the houses in question...I would like to post the picture here but can't seem to figure out how to download the tiff file at the moment, but still... AWESOME RIGHT?

BUT THEN...my day got even better as far as this class goes. On the way out of class, Dr. K was asking me how my individual project on the grant proposal was going...I explained how thrilled I was to have had RB Bernstein comment on my post and offer his help, but that I was still waiting on the LeFrak forum for the grant proposal they had sent to NEH as an example (as the forum was where my idea came from) and lo and behold, Professor Melzer came through tonight and the document he sent IS PERFECT. It doesn't really include budgetary things as far as I could tell from my quick skim of it, but as the important part of this project is the history anyway, I think I'll stick mostly to the narrative portion myself.

All in all, public history can be a great struggle, but the small successes become awesome victories :)

Two Projects--Three Weeks--Time to Panic?

I write you all from one of those lonely library cubicles that I hate because they inevitably produce LOTS of productivity because there is little else to focus on but the work in front of you...

I was very productive tonight on my individual project. I think I want the focus of the lectures to be one of the issues brought up by R. B. Bernstein's The Founding Fathers Reconsidered.  He has a chapter entitled "Achievements and Challenges" and one of them is "The Constitution as Exploding Cigar."  The central idea in this chapter is as follows:



“As Jefferson complained in 1816, later generations have ascribed to the founding fathers ‘a wisdom more than human and have treated their handiwork with ‘sanctimonious reverence.’ This attitude disregards one central fact that Jefferson recognized and stressed—that the Constitution was and remains a human artifact that human beings made and that human beings must make work, and one consequence of its being a human artifact is that it includes imperfections. Some of these imperfections were deliberate compromises…Other imperfections were the product of fear…Still others were the result of the founding fathers being subject to the same human frailties that bedevil all human beings in all societies—lapses of creativity or imagination and failures of care or foresight…” (108)

Basically the idea is that the founders were human so the Constitution is filled with their mistakes or errors. I think an interesting discussion forum would be the errors of the founders...something similar to this conception is another idea voiced in Bernstein's conclusion:

“America’s contentious relationship with the founding fathers has unfolded within and been shaped by a pair of linked questions. How much do the founding fathers resemble us and how much do they differ from us? To what extend are we obliged to keep faith with them or set them aside in the face of changing conditions and problems? That the American people still govern themselves under a written constitution framed by the founding fathers, albeit with a series of amendments adopted between the early 1790s and the early 1990s, gives these questions urgency and bite” (168).

I mean isn't this the reason we study these old dead white guys anyway? To understand how to apply their thoughts to ours today and to the current and future products of modern politics?

Safe to say, I had much better luck today in the library thanks to Dr. K's helpful advice. I now have an extremely heavy bookbag and lots of reading to do, but feel a bit better about the direction of the project.

As for our class project. I (and perhaps foolishly) agreed to be the overall editor/reviser of our I-496 museum exhibit proposal. I generally enjoy this kind of work and hope I will find this endeavor just as enjoyable.

I'm getting a bit overwhelmed (total understatement) with the idea that there is so little time left and I have so much to do in this class. I'm hoping as I keep working that things will fall into place like they always magically seem to do...

Class Project Thoughts

I think the project is going well and as Dr. K put it this morning we have "found our working groove" as a class (or something to that effect).  However, I am a bit frustrated.  I feel like the two teams are trying to communicate with one another, but I feel like only one of the teams is listening and responding--namely the Research Team. This may sound surprising as I am a member of the Writing and Design Team, but I feel we are not doing our part to respond to the hard work of the Researchers.  How many of you have read the documents that they keep posting? I read the summary document from the trip to the library this last Friday and it was FASCINATING. Much of the things we have just been assuming as Designers are proven in that document. I know I am guilty of this too(I certainly have NOT read everything they post), but I think we as a team are too stuck in our ideas and our creative side, and I am worried that we're not using the valuable research they are producing. 

Now maybe I am still too stuck in the academic side of things and the normal way I write research papers. I feel like we should be trying to incorporate all of their research into arguments and support for arguments in our proposal. Maybe I am missing the point a bit though. I know our exhibit is trying to leave things open-minded for our visitors, but I feel we should present a good persuasive presentation for both sides: that the highway destroyed a neighborhood and that there was a need for the interstate.  Yes we need to be concerned about the design of our exhibit and what items are going in it, but I feel we also should be concerned with the overarching story.

If I were a researcher, I think I would feel a little neglected.  They were all so so so excited about the work they accomplished this weekend (and rightfully so I would say!) as evidenced in their blogs, but I felt the reception we gave that excitement was subpar.

Moving forward, I think the designers need to be better about absorbing the information the researchers find instead of worrying about only the vision we have for the project.

More on the Pesky Final Project

I've forgotten how truly productive/refreshing a day at the library can be. I typically avoid this place like the plague, but whenever I do decide to grin and bear it, I usually do some really great work--it's all in the mindset I guess. And though I would rather have spent this gorgeous spring day outside, I found myself a desk by the window looking at the river, so I was content :)

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am working on a grant proposal for my final project on American Intellectual History. I think I have focused in on a theme and some thinkers! In their book The American Intellectual Tradition, Vol 1: 1630-1865, David Hollinger and Charles Capper divide this portion of intellectual history in the US into five parts. I have decided to focus in on Part Two: Republican Enlightenment. These authors utilize documents from Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, George Mason, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison. I would like to focus on all of these ideally, but perhaps leave out one or two (Thomas Paine?). I want the theme of my proposed conference to be the Origins of the Constitution--Understanding our Nation's Constitution--or something to that effect. Since my plan was to make this primarily a scholarship program for students culminating in a lecture series that is open to the public, I thought it would be cool to have the conference in the fall during the week of September 17--Constitution Day!

After doing some research today, I learned that Constitution Day was established in 1940 by Congress to help Americans develop their citizenship. Schools that receive federal funding are required to do activities for Constitution Day on Sept. 17 as well. I thought organizing the conference around this theme would help me to get a grant as the idea of it supports the objectives the government has set forth. Also, originally I wanted to apply for a We the People grant because the fellowship I have this semester through the LeFrak Forum uses such a grant to support its lecture series...I think this would be more plausible now because NEH supports this grant program as well as Constitution Day.

On the actual research side of things, I found myself frustrated because the library doesn't seem to have many books on the subject of intellectual history. However, when I found a book on the intellectual history of the Constitution itself, good research skills allowed me to find great books on the history of American Political Thought...guess I found myself a new buzz word!  I also searched encore for the specific intellectuals I am interested in and found books on them by scholars I could potentially ask to come and lecture.

I feel a lot better about this project after today, but I need to work on the 'story' I want to tell in my grant proposal--as in how exactly learning more about the Constitution's founding helps one to be a better citizen. This should be a good exercise for me more generally as I want to be a political philosopher and need to start learning how to better defend why I want to do this with my life.

S'all for now!

Where are these "alternatives" hiding?!

I have been in email contact with my Dad every few hours for the last few days as he is trying to help us find those alternative construction plans for I-496.  Here is some text from an email that I thought would be helpful:

You know if you go to the following link: http://mdotwas1.mdot.state.mi.us/public/ROWFiles/index.cfm you can view our current R/W ownership along I-496. It also has all the acquisition records (in the table). I can help you interpret them if needed.


If the alternatives don't work out (well either way), I can get you original construction plans but I don't know if I can justify printing them out (maybe a half-size set) & digitally it would overload your computer, but let me know.

Hopefully we are able to find what we are looking for but here is some more stuff to add to our piles!

Flying Solo

This week, our 480 class is flying sans our captain--Dr. K.  But I think it went really well today! I think without having someone who is actually in charge to facilitate discussion, people actually discussed more and took on more individual responsibility.  There was productive discussion between groups today and I think we now have a better understanding of where each group is coming from. 

The Design Team (DT) projected the layout of the temporary exhibit on the board and walked through our thought process with the Research Team (RT). Additionally, we spent our group time today walking through our story board thinking about artifacts (they are now listed in blue on the design page of the Wiki). The DT also shared with the RT  that the project is meant to be a proposal--we only have to prove that items exist, rather than actually having them in hand.  This seemed like news to the Researchers, but they were grateful. We also decided as a class that the RT shouldn't go to Sterling Heights because our time could be better used in other ways. The Researchers (thanks Kelly!) shared with us this awesome interactive website that the LSJ has created about I-496. If our exhibit ends up being merely an online exhibit, getting the rights to that website from the LSJ would be awesome. 

Personally, I feel like the class is getting close to finishing up on this project. The Researchers need to fill in a few gaps as far as artifacts go, and the Designers need to pull everything together into an actual proposal, but as far as conception and thought processes--I think we've got it--which is incredibly encouraging!  Thoughts from others?

History matters in Indianapolis too...

So it has been an incredibly long time since I have blogged--shame on me! But now I am posting from such an interesting location--Indianapolis, the site of this year's Final Four! Per my title, I learned from Coach Izzo himself yesterday at the Spartan pep rally, that 10 years ago today, the Spartans won a National Title--right here in Indy! Obviously, every green-blooded Spartan fan is hoping for a repeat of historic importance :)

But I am also thinking of history in the context of our class on this trip as my time in 480 and at MSU is quickly (and fast than I would like, I might add) coming to an end. I met with Dr. K this week to discuss a final project (finally!) I wanted to do something that would matter to my professional life after MSU and that would help me to bring history to the public in my future job--the whole raison d'etre of our class no? In case I haven't mentioned it on this blog, I am hoping to be a professor of political philosophy. To this end, after talking with Dr K. I have decided to write a grant proposal for a lecture series on Intellectual History. We thought it would be cool to have some kind of One Book, One Community type of program in which people (I have yet to determine my audience) would read the original works of let's say 3-5 American intellectuals and then they would read the commentary on those 3-5 by leading scholars on the individuals. Then, this whole process would be followed by a lecture series where the experts come and give a talk on their people.

I have not figured out all of the logistics yet, but I think I want there to be a theme of the whole series--which will help me determine what interesting individuals to study (if anyone has a favorite American Intellectual--please comment below!) Also, I am fairly certain I want my audience to be students and the larger university community, but I would like to do the program as a scholarship program for students in which they would read the information over the summer and then the speakers would come in the fall.

That's what I have for my project for now--any ideas/thoughts are welcome as this is supposed to be a public-type project. Concerning our class project, I am really excited about our direction--think we should really be able to come up with a great proposal for the MI Historical Museum.

I leave you with this image, as I forgot my camera and can't give you a real photo from Indy:

(don't worry, I plan to purchase one today!)