Seminar 2 Encyclopedia

Neighborhoods of New York

Professor: Joseph Berger
ITF: Madison Priest
Campus: Hunter College
URL: https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/neighborhoodsofnyc/

Neighborhoods of New York is the result of research project undertaken by first year Macaulay Honors students at Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY) under the supervision of Professor Joseph Berger and Madison Priest. This website showcases student groups' profiles of New York City neighborhoods. Students integrated images, video and sound, created timelines, and left room for "surprises and serendipities."

The Peopling of New York City

Professor: Gabriel Haslip-Viera
ITF: Aaron Kendall
Campus: City College
URL: http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/haslipviera2013/

Students investigated the role of immigration and migration in the shaping of New York’s identity – past, present, and future, through oral history interviews and neighborhood research projects. The projects were carried out individually and with little structuring, which made the website content too broad in my opinion. Next time around I would suggest the students do the project in groups and focus on a few particular issues related to immigration and migration.

Hidden Histories

Professor: Grazyna Drabik
ITF: John Boy
Campus: City College
URL: http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/hiddenhistories/

The aim of this site is to make little-known aspects of New York City history visible on a map. In addition, the site links to resources in the form of books, films, and websites that cover these “hidden histories.” [This project remains incomplete]

Professor: Brendan O’Malley
ITF: Jenny Kijowski
Campus: Brooklyn College
URL: http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/bcimmigrantexperience/

The students’ mission statement is as follows: “”To chronicle the growth and development of Brooklyn College as an institution, through the lens of the immigrant experience there.

This is done through:

1) Documenting immigrant experiences there through oral history accounts,

2) Analyzing the extent to which the history of New York has shaped the immigrant experience at Brooklyn College, and

3) Analyzing the role that immigrants have played in shaping the Brooklyn College experience.

Trailblazing Through Greenwich Village

Professor: Bernadette McCauley
ITF: Fiona Lee
Campus: Hunter

This website was created by Macaulay Honors students at Hunter College as part of their first-year seminar, The Peopling of New York, taught by Professor Bernadette McCauley. As part of their neighborhood study of Greenwich Village, each student conducted an individual investigation on a topic of their choice and produced a documented research paper which presented their findings. For the website project, the class chose to present their research papers as news articles, organized in three different sections: People; Culture; and Politics & Controversies.

Immigrants "R" Us

Professor: Phil Napoli
ITF: Jenny Kijowski
Campus: Brooklyn
URL: http://macaulay.cuny.edu/seminars/napoli10

Our projects for this semester are based on immigrant experiences in New York and our own identities as descendants of immigrants. The immigration process is addressed at JFK airport and compared to immigrant experiences in Ellis Island. Then, the local communities of Flatbush and Williamsburg are explored. Finally an overview of Arab Americans in NYC covers their adjustment to life in the region. With insightful interviews, nostalgic pictures, and helpful statistics, a broader picture of immigrant life is established.

Religious Peoples of Flushing, New York

Professor: Omri Elisha
ITF: Tsai-Shiou Hsieh
Campus: Queens
URL: http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/qcpony11/

Professor Omri Elisha’s class completed an in-depth study of the various religious communities that can be found in Flushing. Groups worked on investigating Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, and Sikh communities, noting houses of worship, histories of the faiths, and the people who are part of each center in Flushing.

New York's Four Asiatowns

Professor: Margaret Chin
ITF: Mike Porter
Campus: Hunter
URL: http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/chin11/

Margaret Chin’s class compared and contrasted the communities in New York’s four Asiatowns: Bay Ridge, Brooklyn; Flushing, Queens; Manhattan’s Chinatown; and Sunset Park, Brooklyn. They examined politics, issues of gentrification, and institutions in each neighborhood, including schools, libraries, community centers, medical facilities, and cultural centers. They include photos, interviews, and maps. ITF Mike Porter supported this seminar.

Exploring Greenwich Village: Researching what makes the Village a village

Professor: Bernadette McCauley
ITF: Anton Borst
Campus: Hunter
URL: http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/exploringgreenwichvillagespring2011/

Overview:
Working with ITF Anton Borst, Bernadette McCauley and her class at Hunter made an intensive study of Greenwich Village. The site includes an index of term papers that students completed, as well as entries on landmarks, the arts, community and social issues, and history of the area.

Thoughts on the project from ITF Anton Borst:

The approach to this website was simple, organic, and student-directed. Towards the end of the semester, students were tasked with creating a website that collectively presented the individual research papers they had by that point completed. Other than that directive, students were free to discuss and decide as a group how to organize the site, what kind of content would be included, and for what aspects of the site each student would be responsible. These discussions were moderated and guided by the ITF and took place in class.

The process, especially in the initial stages, was messy and complicated: there were moments of awkward silence and confused frustration as the class began to wrap its head around cooperatively creating—as a group of 20 people—something as elaborate, interactive, and multi-faceted as a website. But as students assumed editorial, design, and managerial leadership roles and the project became increasingly concrete, the process quickly gained momentum. The class took ownership, working intently in small groups: the editors checked on revisions, the project managers called for progress reports, the map designers consulted with the site designers. The class buzzed like a newsroom; I remember thinking to myself that even if the website turned out to be a total mess it would not matter, that the energy, the coordination, the leadership, and the creativity inspired by the process itself was an achievement of its own.

In fact, the resulting website, Exploring Greenwich Village, is not a mess at all, but a sleekly and simply designed site that effectively brings together a wide range of research topics relating to Greenwich Village. Professor McCauley’s focus on cultural, community, and architectural institutions past and present provided its thematic core. The site was created with an audience in mind: it presents the highlights of students’ papers and sources for further information, incorporates images as well as text, and is easily navigable in multiple ways: by general theme (categories), keyword (tags), an alphabetical list of student papers, and by a map. The latter, appearing in the middle of the introductory text for the site, displays icons over locations related to each student project and links to the relevant website page. The site’s navigation thus balances the more formal research components of the course with the more accessible experiential components, namely the walking tours Professor McCauley led through the Village, which inspired many of the individual paper topics. The map also emphasizes a governing theme of the course and of the site: the actual places—and the stories behind them—that have made Greenwich Village what it is, an idea clearly explained on the homepage.