Project
As a collaborative endeavor, this project highlights the shared ethos of LEADR, CAP, and DH@MSU. Its interdisciplinarity spans best practice in oral history research and archaeology (a guiding principle in LEADR), and it promotes the public outreach mission of both CAP and our land grant institution. In keeping with DH@MSU’s openness and community-building efforts, the two early career researchers have utilized open source tools whenever possible and are committed to bridging research and outreach through the creation and dissemination of archaeological histories as a means of scholarly communication.
We envision this project as an act of public archaeology, articulating stories of how the program has developed in collaboration with both MSU and the wider community in East Lansing as it highlights local history and heritage. The website will also be a valuable resource for directors and participants of other Campus Archaeology programs who need comparative references and case studies. Although the website is useful as a stand-alone project, it will serve as a prototype for the dissemination of further oral history interviews as CAP evolves and engages with new collaborators.
Researchers
Lynne Goldstein, Interviewee. Dr. Goldstein retired from MSU in August 2018 and now holds emerita status. At Michigan State, she developed and led the University’s innovative Campus Archaeology Project, persuading University leaders and grounds people alike that documenting the campus’s history through archaeological investigation was a valuable and significant undertaking. As Lynne has frequently advised, one should never undertake research without clear research questions, and in addition to providing countless students with field training and community engagement opportunities (as well as financial support), her work on the MSU campus has contributed significantly to the study of 19th and 20th century midwestern US history and the growth and significance of US land grant universities. An early and enthusiastic adopter of new technologies, she also has played a critical role in the expansion of digital humanities initiatives in archaeology. She is a generous teacher and mentor, with an uncanny ability to cut through academic jargon and pomposity to help her students identify big questions and address them rigorously and clearly. A longer version of this bio is available on the MSU Department of Anthropology website.
Alice Lynn McMichael, co-Principle Investigator. A.L. McMichael is a specialist in late antique and medieval architecture and design. Her digital humanities research is at the intersection of visual studies and digital archaeology. She is currently the Director of LEADR, the Lab for Education and Advancement in Digital Research at Michigan State University, where she is also a member of the DH@MSU Core Faculty. A.L. holds a PhD in Art History from The Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY) and a BFA in Graphic Design from Auburn University.
Autumn Painter, co-Principle Investigator. Autumn is a PhD student in Anthropology, focusing on archaeology. Her research looks at Late Precontact foodways and social interaction in the Eastern Woodlands of North America through the analysis of faunal (animal) bones. Autumn received her M.S. in Archaeology from Illinois State University. She is the MSU Campus Archaeologist from May 2018 – August 2020.
Amber Plemons, Research Assistant. Amber is a PhD student in Biological Anthropology. Her research focuses on understanding human variation across geographic space, ancestry estimation in forensic contexts, dental anthropology, and database management. She is a returning CAP fellow where she is helping establish an archaeology badge for Girl Scouts and develop an online artifact database for artifacts recovered on MSU’s campus.
Support
This website is part of CAP’s online presence which is hosted by Matrix. It was created by collaborators from LEADR (which is part of the Department of History and Department of Anthropology at MSU) and CAP.
Funding for a research assistant was provided by DH@MSU in the form of a Seed Grant awarded in Spring 2019.