This collaborative public humanities project explores questions of family history and national belonging in the United States, focusing in particular on questions of race, gender, sexuality, reproduction, and power. In this interdisciplinary self-reflexive research project I draw on oral history interviews and participant-observation, archival research, GIS mapping, and digital storytelling to explore constructions of family genealogy that challenge narrow and incomplete views of history promoted in contemporary political dialogues. I focus on two genealogical narratives about race, reproduction, gender, and power. Students in SCSS 122: Making Families Public draw on primary and secondary sources from this archival research to construct story maps presenting views of history rarely made available.
This story map exploring intersections of Indigenous, African American, and white family histories was created by Sandra Patton-Imani for the Intentionally Digital, Intentionally Black: African American History, Culture and Digital Humanities Conference held at the University of Maryland, College Park, November 2018.
