Bringing Town and Gown Together: Using Local History to Engage Students and Create Collaborative Partnerships

Abstract

ABSTRACTLocal history projects allow undergraduate students to engage with their surrounding community and forge relationships between universities and museums. By assigning work that requires input from both students and the museums, these projects help create collaborative partnerships as students leave campus to conduct research, participate in and really see the community that surrounds them, and undertake projects that benefit the individual academic program, the university more broadly, the partnering institution, and the community itself. This article highlights several local history-based projects, including a large exhibit designed in a practicum course and smaller projects like photo restoration, oral interviews, and re-photography projects in an introductory course. Both types of projects are ways to engage students and result in academic and museum benefits, but the smaller projects are the most easily implemented while still garnering high-impact results.