Black Syracuse

The Black Syracuse project allows Joan Bryant to expand on how she teaches and undertakes research. It is an adventure in collaborative initiatives that involves working with faculty in other disciplines, research librarians, administrators, archivists, and community residents. It is a distinctive type of public history that attempts to make “hidden” research materials about Black people’s experiences in the Syracuse region accessible to researchers, students, and the local community. It links archival work, oral history, and research training for local residents. The project helps to prepare finding aids for unorganized local research collections. It provides training for residents in the mechanics and logic of oral history interviews. It offers workshops for local residents on how to conduct sound historical research using Internet resources. The three aspects of the project, coordinated with the SU South Side Initiative, allow for unique collaborations among students, local residents and organizations, administrators, and faculty members. It allows for a multi-faceted mode of scholarly work.