Hello Everyone!

Week 1 and the week prior, was total chaos for me. I wasn’t sure if I was going to stay enrolled in this class because my partner had to drop the class and I was concerned about balancing the work load. However, I decided to stick with the class because I believe when it is all over with it will be more than worth it. Since technology is getting more and more advanced it is definitely not my strong suit – I think this has been my greatest anxiety about this class. I am a very hands-on, visual learner and the thought of my professors and classmates being across the country freaks me out.

After really going through the syllabus several times I feel more confident after dissecting and digesting what is actually required of me. This class started a week before my other classes so I am still in the process of organizing my life for this semester. It feels good to finally get in here and get started on something. I have never done a blog before so understanding the etiquette of a blog is still new to me!

I have reached out to several professors who I plan on using as resources for this project. I am in the process of constructing an information email that will include everyone I plan to have on my team. I want everyone who is helping me to have an understanding of what I need and what is required of me. So far I look forward to researching more about the segregation in the city of Springfield. So far I have researched and learn a little bit about the Springfield, IL race riot in 1908, I will be taking a deeper look at this over the weekend!

Peace and Love,

Abriana

I apologize for the late post, as well as being late to game. However with that being said I found that my initial thought of what this class was asking was to dissect a regional conflict and see what exactly happened leading up to and following it.  With that being said I think agree with Erin and I think that looking at the Great Depression in Keene  would be very interesting and it is something I haven’t looked at in too much detail.

I am pretty familiar with working with WordPress as well. For one of my final projects last semester I created a Tattoo blog that discussed tattoos and its relation in space with Democracy.

memoirsofalivingcanvas.wordpress.com

The only thing I am worried about is making sure my technology is working and will not quit on me. I didn’t have any issues with my laptop until this prior week leading up to class. I have download zoom on other platforms so I should be able okay.  I have stopped by my IT department as well as attempting to fix the issues on my own so I’m hoping it’ll be smooth sailing from here on out.

I’m not very computer savvy, for starters. Took me a while to figure out that I needed to log in in order to do this post. But now that I’ve worked out those kinks I might as well make it a good one.

The first week of class was interesting. Honestly, I’ve never been a fan of video conferencing but I’m wiling to give this a try in the name of higher education. I also found the subject of the course to be rather interesting. Being a history major I’ve spent most of my college career studying strife among groups of people, however, I’ve never studied the real history behind Berkshire County. (That’s where my college, MCLA, is located. It’s also where I’ve grown up). As I have learned through my many years on this earth, there is a lot of history in this area; some interesting, some not so much. Famous authors like Susan B. Anthony, Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. and Jr., to name just a few, lived here in Berkshire County. Huge multi-million dollar companies, like GE and Beloit, have come and gone through this same county, while others, like Crane and Company, are still kicking. Famous places of music and culture like Jacob’s Pillow, Tanglewood, and half a dozen theatre companies have all called this place home for who knows how long! There’s quite a bit to talk about here in the 413.

Finding a conflict in which to research and study shouldn’t be too much of a problem. It’s finding one that has a high impact on many people in the area. We are very much a divided county. The closing of mills and factories has left many working/middle class families out of a job, however, the upper class families can still afford to enjoy the theatre and museums that pepper this area. There is a lot of spite, anger, and tension…

On that note, I guess this is my first blog. Ever. Hope you enjoyed it!

Hi everyone! To begin this journey, my partner and I have been brainstorming ideas. We discussed the potential issue of handling invasive species, the various perspectives on hunting, the positive and negative aspects of fracking, and even the effects of World War I on our campus and in our community. As Claire and I dipped our toes into research, we found that fracking was, and still is, a serious issue in our area. It caused a multitude of issues in the economy, the environment, and the dynamic of the town. To determine the best sources for our project, we spoke to one of our friends who is a geography major at our university. He connected us with professors who have researched the effects of fracking in our area. Claire and I will reach out to them in the coming week and we hope to conduct a few interviews to gather different perspectives. We are also planning on looking through the archives to uncover the changes in the economy throughout the years. One of our professors informed us that the costs of living and rent increased drastically when the men working for the fracking industry moved in. Families could no longer afford the costs and were forced to move. We hope to study this further and examine how the issue was resolved. We believe that the aspects of fracking should be known by the community and examined to prevent further issues from the ongoing projects.

Conflict in America: Week 1

My first surprise of the class was I misunderstood what type of conflict we would be researching. I originally thought we would be studying a current social conflict in the region of our college but in actuality we’re studying a more concrete historical conflict that had a clear resolution. So I thought it was more of a sociology class but it’s actually a history class. Which I’m fine with because I already have a sociology class I’m taking.

I think WordPress is over all easy to use. I used it my sophomore year of high school when I was in a club that had a blog about current events.  And like most teenage girls I had a Tumblr blog which is a similar format. I will probably need help with more complex things though and the thing I’m most worried about is the research and citing things correctly.

My two primary ideas I’ve had so far for the project are

1. researching the Manadnock Region (of NH) during the Great Depression and how the government and people of rural NH dealt with the economic depression in area that already struggled and still struggles with rural poverty and 2. a more contemporary conflict which is the controversy over 14 Catholic Priests accused of sexual abuse in Manchester NH in 2005

 

 

Hello everyone!

The first week of our class has come to a close and i’m so excited to see where this project will lead me. When it came to starting a wordpress blog, I did get an introduction last semester in my American Studies course. I was a little rusty at first when I started to make this blog my own, but I think I’ll get the hang of it soon. As far as the project goes, I left today’s class ready to start digging into the history of the region surrounding UMW. I have lived here my entire life, so I’m curious as to what has happened around me that isn’t always broadcasted or highlighted in the average history book. The first thing that always comes to mind when people associate conflict with Fredericksburg is the Civil War. That’s one avenue I’m sure Alyssa and I could find lots of information on, but I decided to go further and just do some generic searches to see what else I can find. On one of the many historical society pages associated with Fredericksburg, I found an interesting article on how the prohibition went down in the city and how the city voted to stay dry and, as was the situation with the majority of the country during this period, was met with opposition in the form of speak-easys and smugglers. Another path we could take that I stumbled upon was the John J. Wright training school that brought education to African American children and the opposition the school received and the role of the Spotsylvania Sunday School Union in protecting the right for these children to be educated.

Another potential lead I stumbled upon while searching history articles from our local newspaper was the Eagle Shoe Factory strike of 1895 that occurred on Hanover Street, which is in close vicinity of our university. Another avenue that has received recent attention and controversy that we could explore is the Loving vs. Virginia case that ultimately lead to the lifting of the ban on interracial marriages. Finally, there is one that hits close to home that I remembered from when I was younger. Ralph Bunche High School, which is located in King George County minutes from my house, was a school for African American children during the time of Segregation that was eventually desegregated. It became a site of conflict and controversy about a decade ago when some people called for its demolition and some for its preservation. Eventually it was made a historical landmark, but it would be interesting, now that I’m older, to further investigate what occurred during that time of conflict and how that resolution was reached.

Through this initial brainstorming, I have confirmed my assumption that this project could literally go in any direction. These are all interesting potential beginnings of our project and I can’t wait to work with Alyssa to find one we are both passionate about  and to go from there to start building on the foundation.

I have never used a blog before, so this might take a little time for me to get used to, but I think I will be able to figure it all out! Right now, Jess and I are brainstorming ideas and we think that we have one idea that could really work well for this project. We have begun to reach out to professors and other people in the area for their ideas on our topic, and we have been told a lot of really helpful information about which people in the community would have the most information, as well as where to find some interesting information that is not well-known. We have asked a few professors if they would be willing to allow us to interview them, since they teach courses of similar interest or they have conducted their own research on the topic as well. We also found out interesting information from some of the professors that live in town, and we are planning on looking further into some of those topics. Overall, we are just getting started in determining our approach for this project, but I feel as though we might have found a topic that could really work for this area!