Dr. Jennifer DeSilva
<b>Department: </b>History<br><b>Research Area: </b>Gas Boom Muncie, The Notable Women of Muncie & Delaware County Project (1870-1920 CE). The history of vice activity (e.g., sex work, alcohol consumption, gambling, violence). Italy (1400-1700 CE), Renaissance Rome and the Papacy.<br>
Department: History
Research Focus: Gas Boom Muncie, The Notable Women of Muncie & Delaware County Project (1870-1920 CE). The history of vice activity (e.g., sex work, alcohol consumption, gambling, violence). Italy (1400-1700 CE), Renaissance Rome and the Papacy
Potential Student Project(s): My students will work on the Town On Fire online exhibit, which presents video biographies of Notable Women of Muncie: https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/notablewomen/exhibits/show/town-on-fire-2021. This project is related to the Notable Women of Muncie and Delaware County Project, which partners with the Delaware County Historical Society. I also research the lives of sex workers, clergy and families in Renaissance Italy.
Attributes/skills/background sought in undergraduate: Students must be organized, reliable, willing to ask questions and make suggestions. Students should have good writing and research skills, and understand the historian's process. Ideally they have taken HIST 200 Introduction to History and Historical Methods with me.
Mentoring Plan: Many undergraduates hope to apply for scholarships (in the short term) and graduate school (in the long term). Work on a faculty-led project like the Town On Fire online exhibit leads to a strong letter of recommendation describing a student's skills, an opportunity to present their work at conferences, and an open-access public history product (a video biography) that reveals their acquired skills. Students will begin by choosing a focal woman to profile, doing some contextual reading, gathering primary source materials, planning an evidence based biographical narrative, and then recording their biography. Once the video is made we will discuss how to present it amid the larger context of the 1870-1920 CE period. At every step students will discuss and reflect on their work, justifying their decisions and considering how the historian's process impacts their historical narrative. This program is as much about creating a video biography as it is reflecting on what the historian does.
Contact: 765-285-8711, BB 212
(Apply for Spring and Summer Semesters only)