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!)

2nd Visit to the Michigan Historical Center

Today we visited the Michigan Historical Center for the second time--and I feel this visit was much more instructive. Listening to Maria Leiby talk through the exhibits on Michigan as we walked through them allowed us to see inside the process of exhibit-making. Her sort of off-hand comments and interesting asides helped at least me to realize new intricacies of designing exhibits. For example, in each exhibit area Maria would explain that certain things had to be left out because there weren't artifacts to fit that story or that stories were included because of certain artifacts. Even at this stage of our planning process, I think we need to keep in mind the feasibility of collecting artifacts--if we have no artifacts all we have is a story, which is about equivalent to an essay, and does not embody public history. I know we have touched on this, but the more she talked, the more I began to realize that if we started finding artifacts, things, perhaps this would help our class form our story.

Maria also emphasized that most of the exhibits were designed as an entire environment rather than by display cases. In fact, in every room she would point out an "ordinary" looking object that actually served as a case with more artifacts. I thought this was a great use of space, but also a way to make exhibits more interesting/interactive.

I did notice however, that many of the exhibits seemed to lack a clear organization. On my own, without Maria, I don't know if I would have proceeded through all of the displays in the proper order. Also, there seemed to be too much information in such exhibits. I consider myself an educated person, and even I wouldn't stand there and read all of the information that was available, let alone small school children trying to take in exhibits.

Concerning the planning/design stages of exhibits, all of our speakers emphasized that they work on teams and committees because the job is just too big for one person. I think Dr. K has already established this precedent for us by making teams, but I think we need to start utilizing this mentality. Maybe this will be easier once we really have a focus and direction.

I found this visit very helpful and interesting--it got me excited about this project again. Therefore, I sincerely hope we can stop spending class time discussing a direction and what we want to do, and just pick one and get working.

From the shores of Daytona

Hello all! I have decided to post about our class project even though I am miles and miles away from Lansing and I-496. Before departing for "sunny" (I have to qualify that adjective as the weather has not necessarily been cooperative here) Florida, I met with my grandparents for an evening of card playing--and the opportunity to pick my grandpa's brain about our class project. As you may recall, I told the class early on that my dad works for MDOT--well so did my grandpa--which means he was working during the time that the I-496 project was underway. While he was not in any kind of supervisory or decision-making position at that point in his career, he was able to tell me quite a bit about the process. Should we choose option 2, I would be able to conduct a more formal oral interview with him. He also said he could connect me with others that could be helpful. My grandma was also very insightful about what the atmosphere in the city of Lansing was like around that time.  She had a lot to say about the perceptions of the project that we wouldn't necessarily find easily.  She suggested that we talk to Mr. Canady and Trustee Ferguson--sources we are already well aware of thanks to Matt Miller's article.

I maintain that I would like to pursue option 2 as I believe that finding sources for that project will be easier.  But more importantly, I feel that we would be exploring a side of the I-496 story that has not necessarily been explained--something good research always tries to do--fill in the gaps. I think projects like option 1 are much more common, for example the "Stan's Walk" website we looked at in the beginning of the course. I think option 2 would force us to think more outside the box and create a truly unique museum exhibit. Doing this more "creative" option, in my opinion, would also likely help us with our own projects as it covers a broader range.

Hope everyone is having a great Spring Break!

Visit to the Michigan Historical Center

Today we visited the Michigan Historical Center in downtown Lansing, right by the Capitol building. I realized I had been there before and was really excited while walking in past the big tree. But I left a little disappointed. Our presenters did an excellent job, but I thought in going to the Center we would get to check it out a bit, and really we sat in an empty room that resembles a classroom at MSU. I know the State Archivist couldn't be with us as planned, but I just thought we could have made better use of where we were. Even discussing how to build an exhibit in front of an actual exhibit would have been better...

That being said, I did have some new thoughts about our project today. Ted Grevstad-Nordbrock of the State Historic Preservation Office mentioned two mansions that would have ended up on the National Register of Historical Places that would have fallen in the path of I-496: The R.E. Olds Mansion and the Orlando Barnes House. It made me realize that we could maybe appeal to an audience with our project by showing them what history they are missing because of the decisions made in the construction of that highway.  Maybe if we could recreate the history of these mansions in our exhibit we could argue for why Lansing should have tried to preserve parts of this neighborhood and what the public could learn if these buildings had made the National Register.