Summer Research Opportunities Wrap-Up
Summer is coming to a close, but at CCBC, we’re grateful that we’ve had such a productive summer! Our students have taken advantage of a number of research opportunities to further their education — here’s just a small sampling of what they were up to in the summer of 2022!
One of the big programs our honors students were looking forward to was the Humanities Collaboratory, a 10-week paid summer research program at Johns Hopkins University, sponsored by the Mellon Foundation. . This program is fairly unique because it is entirely student-driven — they were able to work with multiple mentors at once, while experimenting with their projects in a humanities lab–type environment.
The intention behind the program is simple: support students in finding a project that interests them and helps them build research skills and expertise. Through the 10-week period, they engage in concept-building leading to a final presentation alongside their peers. What’s more, no previous experience was required. In fact, coming into the collaboratory with a blank slate and an open mind often worked to the student’s advantage! Students walk away with new skills and a portfolio to be proud of.
Another summer research program focused on immersing ourselves in the past to understand how communities lived their lives. Too often, we apply a modern lens, which doesn’t quite apply to understanding the culture of the time. By exploring what artifacts are available to understand the histories told — such as visiting museums, archives, and historic sites, we can also glean a sense of what stories are missing and whose histories have been silenced.
Exhibiting the Past: Representing History and Communities in Cultural Spaces was a 3-credit course and centered around weekly lectures from CCBC faculty and guest scholars in humanities disciplines. In addition to the field trips to local museums and historic sites, all participants received instruction and support in using library resources for humanities research. Students were also encouraged to explore four-year transfer options in humanities and other disciplines. As a culminating project, each student designed and curated an online museum exhibition using digital humanities tools.
The 2022 Honors Summer Learning Community: Through the Eye of Hurricane Katrina was a hybrid summer experience that mixed in a trip to New Orleans with in-person and Zoom classes. Students were invited to explore firsthand the history, art, and culture of this incredibly resilient city. During this trip, students met with several New Orleans residents to learn about their personal histories of Hurricane Katrina.
The course was designed to help students understand the intersection of social class, race, gender, crime, cultural segregation, and media portrayals as it played out during the hurricane’s aftermath. From there, students created visual ethnographies highlighting the impact of Hurricane Katrina on marginalized communities and even had the opportunity to speak with some of the residents of New Orleans and learn about their experiences firsthand.
Other summer programs included a day trip to the Evergreen Museum & Library, which holds a renowned collection of over 20,000 works of fine and decorative arts, rare books, and manuscripts- for those wishing to enter the museum career pathway, and a week-long Arts and Activism seminar, which included bus trips to Philadelphia and New York in order to observe and participate in local arts and cultural events. CCBC students had the chance to extend their knowledge of subjects they may be curious about — and we’re so pleased they were all a great success!