Community History ProposalAngela J. Smith, Ph.D.

A proposal by

August 18, 2011

Community History Project

at Belmont University

To engage with local neighborhoods to teach, preserve, and share our community history and culture

History cannot give us a program for the future, but it can give us a fuller understanding of ourselves, and of our common humanity, so that we can better face the future.
Robert Penn Warren

August 18, 2011

Community History Proposal

August 18, 2011

Introduction
With the broad objectives of education, outreach, partnership, research and documentation, the Belmont Community History Project can bring together distinct historic resources and disciplines. Cultural information and community stories are contained in individuals, families, businesses, churches, schools and in personal memories and old boxes that all of them have tucked away. The Community History Project is a methodical, interdisciplinary approach in which students track down and explore these resources to advance their own academic goals and to add to the legacy of local history. This project is designed to begin at the university and extend step by step into the immediate neighborhoods and then beyond. Students will learn to use established historical methods to do the research and data collection; to interpret it through their own and others examination; and to preserve and document their finds so that they will later be widely accessible to the public. Research and documentation are both the process and the product of such a project, but partnership is essential to achieve them. Connecting the project and participants will allow us to share existing resources and jointly pursue grant opportunities and other support where it is appropriate. Beyond material and financial partnership and even education and outreach, the Community History Project can be one more of the increasing ways that Belmont is recognized and can serve well beyond its boundaries.

Local History Project Chart

Public History Project

Instructor

Angela Smith

Teach: Two Historical Documentary Filmmaking classes, and one HIS honors course, and one course release to manage project.

Projects Partner with varied disciplines at Belmont and local Nashville schools

Courses

Equipment

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BU Courses: History Service Learning

Block History Initiative

Belmont Education Department Belmont Sociology Department Belmont History Department Rose Park Middle School Metro High Schools Belmont Media Studies Department

Facilitate high school and college courses that focus on historically mapping Nashville block by block and telling the stories found in the process. Also partner with the community in this endeavor.
BU Course: Historical Documentary Filmmaking (Junior Cornerstone), and Contemporary history honors course

For both local high school and college students Church History Initiative

Student Historical Documentary Film Festival

Plan for three kits for each class. A class is divided into three small groups. The kits include: digital video camera, laptop, still camera, audio recorder, and tripod.

Partner with local churches to help preserve their histories.

Edgehill Oral History Initiative

Community History Proposal

August 18, 2011

Implementation
1. Angela Smith, whose CV begins on page 12, earned a doctorate in Public History at Middle Tennessee State University in May 2011. This project proposes that she teach two sections of Historical Documentary Filmmaking (Junior Cornerstone) and one honors course in Spring 2012, and concurrently she will begin to develop local history initiatives. 2. As a full-time employee, she will initially: a. teach 3/3 load of local history-based courses with a 3-hour course equivalent to administer the initiatives and build, then manage the web component tof the project. b. plan, coordinate, and develop projects and establish outcomes. c. network with local history professionals, educators, and interested members of the community. d. build an accessible website to share research results with the public and provide a platform for student historical documentary projects. 3. Initial projects a. Block History Initiative This is a long-term project where students in disciplines such as history, health sciences, sociology, education, and religion will conduct methodical, block by block research of the city of Nashville. The information will be catalogued and translated into a searchable geographical information system (GIS) database that provides a visual framework of change over time. Initial conversations have taken place with several people involved with Vanderbilt Medical School and the geo-science GIS department at MTSU, and there is interest in further exploring possibilities.

Community History Proposal

August 18, 2011

b. Student Historical Documentary Film Festival Todays high school and college students have unprecedented technological savvy that can be coupled with academic studies. Several film festivals and local theaters around the country show quality documentary films created by students. This initiative is aimed at giving students a venue for competition and a larger public audience. It could link not only with the various disciplines, but also with such things as the annual campus theme Wealth and Poverty in 2011-12 as well as the ongoing theme, Ways of Knowing. The Metro Public Library is open to partnerships in this endeavor. c. Local Church History Initiative This initiative can take various forms. For example, students in an independent study or Community of Scholars project could conduct research on a particular churchs history, teach members how to digitize church historical records, and conduct oral histories of longtime church members. This project could be tied to courses in religion or history. Partnerships might include interfaith organizations and religious publishing houses. d. Edgehill Oral History Project With the growth of Belmont University, the physical and sociological landscape continues to change. The Edgehill Oral History Project would focus on methodically capturing the perspectives of residents who have seen the area morph into its present form with the attendant physical and sociological changes. There are potential partnerships on Music Row.

Community History Proposal

August 18, 2011

Project Objectives
Educate BU students and the community about the land and place that have been common to both, as well as the unique histories that have followed. Reach out in an effort to create a historical record of our neighbors experiences, stories and artifacts. Partner with classes and student groups, churches, civic groups, and libraries to expand opportunities for outreach and service. Research the communities that surround Belmont in an effort to discover and record our history Belmont and Beyond in university classrooms as well as church and community forums. Document and catalog the work of the project in a publicly accessible venues such as the Community History Projects website and public lectures and presentations on and off campus.

Community History Proposal Objective: Education

August 18, 2011

Teach BU history courses that focus on local historical research such as the Junior Cornerstone, Historical Documentary Filmmaking. Model can extend across disciplines in both classroom and service learning. To begin, focus on the areas where Belmont, Edgehill and Music Row have intersected through their respective histories: land use change over time demographics cultural landscape studies histories of Belmont and neighborhoods history of the music industry in Nashville

Objective: Structured Outreach in the Community

Offer opportunities for local residents to learn about preservation and digitization. In the process we capture the stories in oral and video histories; we digitize their photographs and identify them (and, of course, return them.) Ultimately, there will be a place that the neighborhood and the broader public can come to study and add to the collected records. Offer community classes and workshops for little or no cost to participants. Design some to be intergenerational children and their grandparents and others to be student or adult learning. Partner with local schools to share our discoveries with the next generation. At Belmont, the initiative could work with sociology, journalism, history, political science, and music business professors to develop course projects anchored in the local community.

Community History Proposal

August 18, 2011

Offer educational opportunities and exhibits within the community Easley Project, school auditoriums, church fellowship halls, Edgehill Branch Library, high-rise apartments and clinic. Develop history-related entrepreneurial opportunities for area residents and students. Ideas such as helping create a small publishing company to publish short run books and pamphlets could offer ways to develop practical skill sets and bring the project back to the community in a concrete form. Belmont art and photography students can create works using vintage and contemporary Edgehill photos. The proposed Community History Project can hang exhibits where people pass by and stop, look and talk about what they see. They share their stories: I remember ... Public Relations students can plan events for opening receptions and can use Community History Project materials to create brochures or keepsakes to pass out. Education students can work with teachers at Rose Park and Carter-Lawrence on lesson plans that incorporate material that Belmonts Community History Project has gathered. Sports administration students and athletes can create an exhibit and find speakers for an event related to the Negro Leagues. Community Health Research

Objective: Community Partnerships

There are many partnership opportunities for the Community History Project. The project can approach local libraries, schools, and churches with a goal of learning and preserving the communitys history: offer the community a chance to create their own historical narrative rather than have others create it for them; and partner with classes and student groups, churches, civic groups, and libraries to expand opportunities for outreach and service. Initially partnerships could include geo-sciences lab at MTSU, Vanderbilt Health Sciences, Meharry Medical Center, Belmont Mansion, Metro Public Schools, Tennessee State Library and Archives, Metro Public Library, and Metro Archives.

Community History Proposal Objective: Research and Documentation

August 18, 2011

The Community History Project is a vehicle to research the communities that surround Belmont in an effort to discover and record our common history and culture Belmont and Beyond in university classrooms as well as church and community forums. Systematic research projects will build a collaborative community history. Many times research is conducted in a vacuum where individuals are unaware of what others are doing. A primary goal is to create and coordinate a central repository that ensures that the research of Belmont classes, public schools, and the community becomes part of the record that exists and also expands upon it. The work of the project will be documented and catalogued in publicly accessible venues such as an interactive website as well as public lectures and presentations on and off campus. In the beginning, that does not require that the university create a dedicated space to house it. A replicable academic model will be documented and ultimately shared.

Community History Proposal

August 18, 2011

Funding
I believe there are grants available for this project. Initial conversations suggest this might be a fit for an NEH digital initiative grant, as well as science foundation grants for health-based community research. I have spoken to a contact at Vanderbilt who is interested in discussing a partnership based in community health research. There is value in studying economic, ethnic, social, and cultural changes in a community over time. The areas of change are important not only for the history, but also for matching donor objectives.

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Community History Proposal Community History Project DRAFT Detailed Budget

August 18, 2011

This assumes a federal grant (not a private donor) whereby the sponsor funds Direct costs plus Indirect costs at the full negotiated rate of 38%. Its important to note that not all of our existing federal contracts have won the full 38% rate. If this is funded by a private sponsor, then what and how much the organization will fund varies. Category Grant Year 1 $50,000 (100% FTE on 10-month contract) $45,000 (9 media kits@$5,000 per kit) + $3,250 (computer, Web, & design software for PI) = $48,250 $250 (annual Web hosting) $95,250 Grant Year 2 $52,000 (100% FTE on 10-month contract) assumes 4% pay increase

Personnel Compensation

Equipment and Supplies Other Costs Total Direct Costs Indirect Costs or F&A (full federal rate is 38% of Direct Costs) Grand Total

$0 $250 (annual Web hosting) $52,250

$36,195 $131,445

$19,855 $72,105

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CURRICULUM VITAE

Angela J. Smith
131 Holly Forest Nashville, Tennessee 37221 hm: 615.673.6447 cell: 615.513.6324 smithangj@gmail.com Portfolio site - http://newmediahistory.com/portfolio/
[most material listed below is displayed in the digital portfolio]

Education
Ph.D. Public History Middle Tennessee State University May 2011 GPA: 4.0 Dissertation: John Beecher: An Activist Poet Chronicles an American Century Dissertation website: http://newmediahistory.com/johnbeecher/ M.A. History Middle Tennessee State University Spring 2007 GPA: 3.96 Thesis: Highlander Folk School and its Adversaries, 1932-1942 B.A. Belmont University December 1984 Communication Arts and English

Teaching Experience
HIS 3015, Historical Documentary Filmmaking Belmont University Conceptualized, developed and taught a Problem-Based Learning Junior Cornerstone course; course offered by the History Department to non-history majors as part of the universitys General Education requirement; class objectives included local history research, group collaboration, and public presentation; final film product for each of the three student groups was presented to a public audience at the end of the semester. 2009-2010 (3 semesters) Multimedia Storytelling Belmont University Taught journalism students the mechanics and craft of digital storytelling. The course focused on the fundamentals of video, audio, still photography, and standard web delivery systems. Spring 2011 History 2020, Survey of American History, 1877-present Middle Tennessee State University Spring 2010 History 2010, Survey of American History through Reconstruction Middle Tennessee State University As GTA, assisted Dr. Jan Leone by planning and presenting primary source exercises once a week. Fall 2009

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Changing Media: US and UK Cooperative Center for Study Abroad Summer Program Assisted Linda Quigley, a Media Studies instructor at Belmont University, in a study abroad course in London for five weeks. Worked with her to develop activities, lectures, field trips to introduce students to differences between British and American media in print, web and multimedia. Summer 2007 Visual Journalism Belmont University Developed and taught a class that focused on blending narrative, graphics, and technology to tell stories in new ways. Spring 2007, 2009 Historical Documentary Independent Study Belmont University Four students have taken the course since 2004, with each producing a documentary on a different topics: the lunch counter sit-ins in Nashville during the 1960s; the early history of the antebellum Belmont Estate; the history of RCA Studio B; and Nashvilles Park Center, a nonprofit that serves clients with chronic mental illnesses. 2004-2008 Introduction to Media Technology Belmont University Taught web section of this course, which was designed to introduce the varied technologies used in todays media world to freshman public relations and journalism students. Fall 2004-2006 Journalism Practicum 2 Belmont University Assisted in developing curriculum for inaugural hands-on course for students to learn online online journalism by practicing the discipline; final product was a hyperlocal website to cover the university and its surrounding neighborhood; co-taught with Dr. Sybril Bennett. Spring 2005 Community of Scholars Course in Historical Documentary Filmmaking Belmont University Developed and taught summer intensive that focused on telling the story of the founding of Belmont College as a womens school in 1890 and its history for the next 60 years; four students met for class three hours a day for five weeks and, after researching archives and conducting and filming oral histories, students produced two documentary films that were shown to a public audience at the end of the course. Summer 2005

Publications/Work Products
Myles Horton, Highlander Folk School and the Wilder Strike of 1932 Published on Highlanders website http://www.highlandercenter.org/links.asp 1946 Columbia Race Riot Produced and designed website http://www.mtsu.edu/~tnriot46/ The History of Murfreesboro Electric Department Worked with the Center for Historic Preservation at MTSU to produce a documentary about the history of Murfreesboro Electric Department. Refuse to Fold For academic documentary, partnered with Brian Dempsey to document the changing narrative of the blues in the Mississippi Delta; conducted interviews, shot footage and photos; responsible for production and editing of film published as part of Brians Ph.D. dissertation.

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Genesco Archive Project As contract employee, evaluated, catalogued, and rehoused company papers for Genesco, an 85-year-old Nashville, Tennessee, shoe retailer that currently owns Journeys, Johnston&Murphy, Underground Station, Dockers, and Lids stores. CRM Project: Land ownership along Van Cleve Lane A cultural landscape project that examined land ownership history on a section of Stones River National Battlefield in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Oaklands Plantation Exhibit: Beyond the Plantation Assisted director by designing, printing and facilitating the installation of the first exhibit to interpret African-American presence and legacy at the Oaklands Plantation in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Landmarks of American History Website: War of Invasion, War of Liberation Designed website for Landmarks of American History grant for Dr. Robert Hunt. Material Culture Resource Project Created a content management site (Drupal) for a class collaboration for Dr. Bren Martin; created the infrastructure and design and students added instructional material on the preservation of material culture for the general public.

Conference Presentations
March 3, 2009 Panelist: History to Storyline: Media and Mediating the Message George Wright Society Biennial Conference on Parks, Protected Areas, and Cultural Sites Portland, Oregon April 13, 2007 Panelist: Visual Media and History: Using Technologies to Teach and Learn History Annual Meeting of the National Council of Public History Santa F, New Mexico November 12, 2005 Thesis research presentation on Highlander Folk School Education for Social Change: The Story of the Highlander Folk School from 1932 to the Present. Symposium sponsored by Nashville Public Library Nashville, Tennessee September 29, 2006 Visual Media and History: Using New Technologies to Teach and Learn History Tennessee Conference of Historians Nashville, Tennessee Feb. 9, 2005 They Marched Instructed and supervised student Tamara Tatars production of documentary on civil rights events in mid-1960s in Nashville; presented finished work at African-American History Conference, Tennessee State University. Nashville, Tennessee May 2004 The Holland Farm Researched, filmed and produced documentary on one of Tennessees Century Farms; presented to the board of the Land Trust for Tennessee. Nashville, Tennessee

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Grants and Grant Proposals

2010 Digital Commons Proposal Belmont University Designed and specd a lending library that would be called a learning commons to create a central place for students to receive training and then check out digital equipment for use in classwork throughout the university; the proposal is under consideration by the Office of Provost. 2008 Moving History Grant Proposal First Annual Digital Media and Learning Competition Sponsored by the MacArthur Foundation, Duke University, and HASTAC Proposed a mobile history initiative to partner with Dr. Chad Berry and the Center for Appalachian Studies at Berea College in Kentucky; goal of initiative was to raise the level of digital literacy among citizens in under-served rural populations in non-traditional and non-threatening learning environment; proposal did not win, the idea remains relevant if proper funding were available. 2007-2008 Digital History Studio Technology Access Fund Grant Middle Tennessee State University Designed, specd, and purchased equipment with a $117,000 grant for a digital history studio in the History Department. Purchased 20 Macintosh laptops, laptop storage cart, server, RAID, professional video cameras, professional lighting, professional digital still cameras, and accompanying software.

Work Experience
January 2004 to present Belmont University Part-time staff; adjunct instructor Graphics and web adviser to Belmont Vision, student newspaper of Belmont University; responsibilities include layout and design of newspaper and website, teaching and facilitating student learning of design process and equipment use in production environment. Also designed Connect Magazine for Media Studies Department Spring 2006-2010; in addition to layout, design, and advising; also responsible for hardware and software purchases and upkeep in student media office; purchased and maintained computers and digital equipment such as still and video cameras, microphones, audio recorders. Additionally, from 2007-present, served as adjunct instructor in the Media Studies Department teaching media technology and multimedia courses, and in the History Department teaching Historical Documentary Filmmaking. April 2008 to present Freedom Forum Diversity Institute Adjunct Multimedia Faculty Assist in teaching multimedia workshops for minority students and practicing journalists in early years of careers; in this capacity, work as contract employee for Diversity Institute of the Freedom Forum, based in Nashville. 1998-present Freelance designer Worked with a variety of clients in Nashville to produce web and print projects.

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1985-2002 Graphic Design Prepress Production Web Design and Production Employed by several print and graphic design companies over a 20-year period; worked at a national color separation house as the digital specialist in Nashville during the transition from analog to digital technology in late 1980s; capitalized on that knowledge and moved to San Francisco Bay area to manage prepress department of a large offset printer in the East Bay; three years later, moved to Salem, Oregon, for similar opportunity. Chose to return to Nashville 12-years ago to work in design business and to enter graduate school. Jackson Design, Nashville, Tennessee Third Power Imaging, Nashville, Tennessee K/P Graphics, Salem, Oregon Gehre Graphics, Concord, California NEC Corp, Nashville, Tennessee AW Vidmer & Company, Brentwood, Tennessee

Technical Skills
Proficient in design for print, web, and filmmaking; thorough knowledge of design, web, and digital filmmaking software such as Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, Quark Xpress, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash, HTML, CSS, WordPress, Drupal, Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro, LiveType, Soundtrack Pro, and AfterEffects as well as in-depth knowledge of scanning, photography, professional lighting, sound, and professional video cameras; worked with Macintosh computers for most of career and have experience providing in-depth technical support and instruction in their use; also have working knowledge of Microsoft Windows.

Honor Societies
Phi Kappa Phi, inducted spring 2006

Scholarships
Bart McCash Memorial Scholarship, MTSU, 2006 and 2008

Design Awards
2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2003 2001 2001 1990 Southeast Journalism Conference, 1st, Best Magazine, for Connect Magazine; 1st, Best Website, for belmontvision.com Southeast Journalism Conference, 1st, Best Magazine, for Connect Magazine Southeast Journalism Conference, 1st, Best Magazine, for Connect Magazine Southeast Journalism Conference, 2nd, Best Website, for belmontvision.com; Honorable Mention, Best Newspaper, Belmont Vision; Honorable Mention, Best Magazine, for Connect Magazine Southeast Journalism Conference, 1st, Best Magazine for Connect Magazine Southeastern Journalism Conference, 1st, Best Website, belmontvision.com Local and national Addy for Vanderbilt School for Medicine Promotional package Local and national Addy for packaging design of CD booklet, O Brother, Where Art Thou? Local and national Addy for design of book, I Hope You Dance Local Addy for best letterhead design

Professional Memberships
American Association of History and Computing American Historical Association National Council on Public History Organization of American Historians Southern Historical Association

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