Kudos for Fall 2018

Here are some alumni accomplishments that we learned about throughout this summer/fall:

John Low (MSP05) was awarded tenure and promoted to Associate Professor in the Department of Comparative Studies at Ohio State University.  John is also an Affiliated Faculty in American Indian Studies, and last year he was designated the coordinator of the American Indian Studies minor at the Newark campus.  He also wrote a book last summer, Imprints: The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians & the City of Chicago, and has authored several articles in recent years.

Monica Patterson (MSP07) has just started a new position as Director of the Curatorial Studies Program at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, where she is also an Assistant Professor in the Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies. This September she will be presenting a paper entitled “Not Just Something to Celebrate: Reading the Spaces between in MOSAÏCANADA 150/GATINEAU 2017” at the Association of Critical Heritage Studies 4^th Biannual Conference, “Heritage Across Borders,” at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China.

Marc Levitt (MSP08), an archivist at the National Naval Aviation Museum, has initiated the first Visitor Studies Program at the museum, as well as its first Exhibition Development Seminar. In August 2018 he spoke at the Society of American Archivists (SAA) meeting on processing large collections, in a talk entitled “Archiving More Than 50 Years of Public Service: The Robert C. Byrd Papers.”

Ricardo Punzalan (MSP08) Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland College of Information Studies, has been appointed co-director of the Museum Scholarship and Material Culture graduate certificate program at Maryland.

Sarah Conrad Gothie (MSP09) has published her first book, Damsons: An Ancient Fruit in the Modern Kitchen (Prospect Books, August 2018), a culinary and cultivation history of the damson plum that includes a collection of 60+ historic and new recipes. She teaches in the School of Humanities at Penn State Harrisburg and is currently researching her next book, about literary pilgrimages inspired by the works of Canadian writer L.M. Montgomery.

Kristine Ronan (MSP09) published a research article last winter on collections research that she had done at Monticello, “ ‘Kicked About’: Native Culture at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello.”  The full article can be read here.

John Kannenberg (MSP10) was interviewed this spring for an episode of Brown University’s Public Work podcast, produced by the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage.  This show focuses on public scholarship institutions and projects across a wide spectrum of cultural heritage topics.  John discussed his Museum of Portable Sound project and what it’s like to curate sounds as objects within a museum context

KT Lowe (MSP10), Coordinator of Library Instruction and Service Learning at Indiana University East, is teaching her first official college class this fall – a first year seminar course. Her LibGuide on fake news has received national attention, most recently from Forbes Magazine in April 2018. This is also her second year teaching a popular five-part workshop on the history of chocolate for Miami University’s Institute for Learning in Retirement. Participants try up to 18 different chocolates from the major chocolate-producing regions of the world while learning about direct trade, the impact and legacy of colonialism, the environmental impact of cacao farming, and the future of chocolate.

Jenny Kreiger (MSP11) has started a new position as a Mellon Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of Oregon, working with faculty on projects involving collaboration between the campus art museum (the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art) and university libraries. Previously, she served as a graduate intern at the J. Paul Getty Trust in Los Angeles, where she developed grants for digital art history and global art history, and provided research support for art and architectural conservation initiatives.

Anna Topolska (MSP11)continues to manage and develop her language school in Poland. This past year has been a busy one! She signed a partnership agreement with the British Council and obtained European Union funds to support free English courses for unemployed populations in the Polish cities of Poznań and Jarocin. She received the highest English language certificate awarded by the University of Cambridge to non-native speakers of English (CPE). She translated numerous publications from English to Polish and from Polish to English, including the forthcoming Contemporary Lives of the Past by Dr. Violetta Julkowska and Dr. Wiktor Werner. She also became a PhD candidate in the History Department of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland, and presented current research at conferences in Krakow, Chicago, and Copenhagen.

Caroline Braden (MSP13), in addition to her work as the Guests Accessibility/Special Needs Coordinator at The Henry Ford, also chairs a consortium, the Michigan Alliance for Cultural Accessibility.  Caroline’s work includes planning and implementing programs for people who are blind/have low vision, deaf/hard of hearing, on the autism spectrum, and who have dementia.  MACA provides a forum for sharing best practices, ideas, and resources focused around making cultural institutions more welcoming and inclusive. Caroline was also a co-presenter during a session at this year’s Michigan Museums Association conference.

Julie Feldt (MSP14) has moved from Chicago to upstate New York, where she has taken a role in guest services at the Mid-Hudson Children’s Museum in Poughkeepsie. She is excited to take part in the museum’s expansion — over the next five years — to two science museum spaces geared toward older kids and adults.

Ben Tupper (MSP14) began a job at the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum as their new Museum Experience and Volunteer Manager last winter where he works on developing programming for the museum.

Crystal (Labrosse) McColl (MSP15) is now working at The Henry Ford as a Collection Specialist – Cataloger. She greatly enjoys working for The Henry Ford and occasionally sees cohort-mate Lauren Stamm Brady, now a Reference Archivist at the museum.

Allan Martell (MSP15) is currently conducting fieldwork in El Salvador, exploring the links between museum experience design and memory, using an ethnographic approach. He has been interviewing local human rights organizations to understand the kinds of commemorative events they have held for victims of human rights abuses. He also recruited a group of young adults (ages 12-18) to collaborate in designing an exhibition about the history of El Salvador.

Colin Walker (MSP17) has been appointed Public Programs Manager at the Museum of Food and Drink (MOFAD), New York City’s first food museum.

Stephanie Brown (MSP17) has accepted a position as Knowledge Coordinator for the nonprofit organization Professional Photographers of America (PPA). The new role — specifically created for her — marries her backgrounds in museum studies and art and interests in structural organization and collections management. She will assist PPA in advancing their educational video offerings for members and the general public.