My research topic will be focused on the Tawana Brawley case. In 1987, Tawana Brawley, who at the time,was 15 years old disappeared and was discovered four days later. She was found in a garbage bag, covered in excrement and was in shock. Brawley alleges that for four days she was held captive by six white men who brutalized her. What proceeded after her discovery was a confusing spectacle played out in the public eye and fraught with racial tension. The drama was documented through newspaper and magazine articles, T.V. and radio programs, as well as an array of legal documents. Her case was eventually dismissed by a Grand Jury and her name has since become synonymous with false rape allegations. I would like to create a web site that documents the case and all related documents (print, radio and tv as well as court documents) and provides analysis for how the case impacted the local community as well as the the nation. In addition, I would like to also show just how much Tawana Brawley has become ingrained in our culture. Almost everyday her name is invoked in either a blog or article and I would to explore what she has come to represent in American culture.

Hopefully, I am not the only one with this problem, but I having a hard time thinking of Research Topic.  I was thinking about doing research on Black Holes, but that might be to recent.  So I am now thinking about doing research on the History/Creation of NASA.  Meanwhile, I have been having issues with my computer and zotero.  I right now can’t bring Zotero up, but I was hoping to use Zotero and Endnote to save my bibliography.  In the past I find that google and worldcat to be the most useful in doing research.

My research interests are fairly broad and eclectic, which will hopefully be dwindled as delve more into each topic and am faced with the realities of which would be more feasible for class. That said – I’m still thinking about a project on Henry V or the Battle of Agincourt (1415). I’ve always be fascinated by this time period and the English goal of “reclaiming” the French crown. I will also be looking into the Federal Writers Project – a part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) as I would generally like to know more about it. Also, I was thinking of creating a project around Herman Melville, his works, and life in New York.

I’m hoping to focus my research on the “Jesus People” movement in America in the 1960s and 1970s. This was an evangelical Christian movement within the hippie counterculture. Unfortunately, this movement was contained primarily in California (though I’ve read that German youth really caught on to the movement)

I just recently received “The Jesus people movement : an annotated bibliography” by David Di Sabatino. I’m hoping that this will provide me with a wide range of sources. I am also trying to find a copy of the Jesus People International magazine or The Hollywood Free paper produced by the Jesus People International though interlibrary loan. I’m positive that I should be able to find relevant photographs, but that will require a bit more research on my part.

The Jesus People Movement also produced a large amount of “Jesus music” (Christian rock). Hopefully I will be able to use music in a digital archive, as it was a very important part of the movement.

My past interests have been American Expansionism, American Empire, Manifest Destiny and the like. I am extremely interested in the more outlandish forms of expansion, from our instigation of a war with Mexico and seizure of almost half of its land in the 1840s, to lesser attempts to conquer Cuba to add slave states to the union, and Cornelius Vanderbilt supporting an American “filibuster” to become President of Nicaragua so that he may have control over the only Pre-Canal route across Central America.

Most of these stories have roots in NYC, since Cornelius Vanderbilt was here at the time. Fundraisers and rallies were held in New York for the benefit of the efforts to take Cuba, but archival material seems to be scarce and newspapers are the typical source for this information. I may need to refocus my research attempts. Perhaps a more contemporary topic would be appropriate in order to increase the possibility of findin visual materials as opposed to textual documents.

I’m also interested in my home state and the relationship it has with New York and the city itself. I began recently looking for materials relate to Vermont as a getaway destination for wealthy New Yorkers and whether there is significant/interesting material on how this tourist industry grew.

I’m thinking of returning to the research topic I invested in during the spring semester, as a component of Cathy Hajo’s ‘History & New Media’ course.  For that course, we had to plan a digital history exhibit and compose a grant proposal for its funding — though we never actually built the website.  I felt somewhat unfulfilled doing all of this hypothetical work and never actually seeing the project to creation.  I’d be interested in doing that this semester.

The topic I researched last semester was the eight-day strike at Columbia University from April 23-30, 1968.  It is commonly considered a student protest against the Vietnam War, but I came to discover that it was much more than that.  It involved the participation of not only Columbia students, but students from throughout NYC, community members, and social activists from throughout the region.  It was also a civil rights protest, concerned equally with ending the war as it was with improving Columbia’s relations with its Harlem neighbors.  The events at Columbia throughout the late 60s proved very influential on campus activity across America, and this protest was the most significant that Columbia ever experienced.  It also caused a time of crisis for the university, and even for the nation, as evidenced by the intense national media coverage it received.

I worked with the Columbia Archives staff last semester in digitizing archival materials, and had a rewarding time going through their 75-box Protest & Activism Collection.  Due to the size of the collection, however, I feel as though I only scratched the surface.  There is a lot more potential for exploration!

As suggested by Amanda, I’m considering adding an NYU component and looking at NYU’s activities in this period (perhaps even just Spring 1968).  I know that NYU and Columbia students convened for several events, and I’d also love to compare/contrast their separate activities.

I am assisting a professor at Wagner College in research for an article regarding Huguenot families of Staten Island for the Staten Island Genealogical Society.  I plan on further researching this topic for the digital archive and will focus on the Huguenot influence in the settling of Staten Island, specifically on a few of the founding families (and not their descendants) from the late seventeenth century.  I plan on using many archives within New York City (and possibly in Albany) to find land deeds, court cases, and other original documents relating to the families.  I will also try to find visual elements, including images of Huguenot cemeteries and seventeenth-century houses, to include as well.