Familial Memory & Foundations of Schooling As an African American girl growing up on the Southside of Chicago, I knew nearly nothing about my family’s past. I knew, in the 1950s, my mother, her siblings, and my grandparents fled rural Alabama for Chicago. My...
I applied for a job as a docent at the Detroit Observatory on a whim. Very quickly, it became a major component of my day-to-day life. I helped to update historic campus tours and design new ones, give lecture-style presentations, and facilitate the various...
Around the same time I was hired by UM’s Institute for Research on Women and Gender (IRWG) as the Graduate Fellow for Exhibits, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine is an important place to me. I spent a year there in...
Digitization – the act of creating digital, virtual models of existing museum objects and displays – within the museum space can sometimes be a contentious topic. Curators and museum professionals champion the immersive experience that accompanies a traditional in-person visit, as many exhibits rely...
In the Summer of 2021, I was a Museum intern helping to conceive and research a digital gallery commemorating the role of art in the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies (DAAS) here at the University of Michigan. That summer of work led me...
The romance of the herbarium is not readily apparent upon first approach. I don’t know much about architectural style, but “office building meets warehouse” is the best way to describe the Research Museums Center, where the herbarium is located.
