Message from Public History Director Nishani Frazier
Welcome to our public history alum and supporters.
This has been an exciting year! I joined NC State’s Department of History as the new director of public history for the 2023-2024 academic year, along with a vibrant incoming first-year cohort. These students reflect the best of public history’s program with focus areas in museum studies, heritage and preservation, and of course, archives. Meanwhile, public history Ph.D. students are making incredible strides toward the completion of their dissertations.
Our community of students continue to be active participants in the field- producing incredible digital humanities projects, engaging community preservation and publishing in the field. Over the academic year, students Chelsea Lundquist-Wentz, Nicole Ackman and Ginni Leeman participated in the Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies digital humanities project on Arab American Labor. Their work beautifully captured the history of Arab American labor in the United States through the use of story maps.
Our doctoral students have also made incredible strides. Shima Hosseininasab and Mandy Paige-Lovingood were both awarded the University Dissertation Completion Grant. Additionally, Shima Hosseininasab and Lisa Withers were both recently published. Hosseininasab’s “From Arrival to Archiving: An Immigrant Archivist’s Story” appears in the SAA Newsletter and Blog and Withers’ review of The Green Book of South Carolina in the South Carolina Historical Magazine. Rebecca Speas and Fran Fleming also have upcoming publications of book reviews for Humanities Net.
Additionally, many of our students are preparing to join the public history annual study abroad program. This year, they will visit Japan where students will explore popular culture, material culture, religion and transnational historical memory from the 19th to 21st century. We expect to hear wonderful stories about their experiences and we look forward to sharing them in the coming newsletter.
I’m happy and honored to have joined the department as director of public history. I look forward to furthering the work of public history by increasing focus on burial site history, digital humanities training and enhanced programming that features the work of current and former students. I thank you all for the warm welcome and I look forward to another dynamic year!
Nishani Frazier
Professor and Director of Public History
