Brown University’s Center for Digital Scholarship (CDS) and the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage (JNBC) are seeking individuals to apply for a fellowship to direct the digital aspects of the Fox Point Community History Project. The digital fellow will work with faculty and staff in both the CDS and JNBC as well as other Brown faculty and students undertaking related work to develop an online public history resource that incorporates oral history, primary documents (photographs, letters, clippings), geospatial data, documentary film, statistical data and other materials. This multidimensional, interactive framework will provide avenues for both scholarly and public engagement.

This fellowship is contingent upon funding from the NEH Fellowships at Digital Humanities Centers program (http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/fdhc.html). Applications to NEH must be completed jointly by the selected fellow and the CDS and JNBC and must be submitted by September 15, 2009 for projects beginning as early as June 1, 2010. Your immediate attention and response is requested. Successful candidates will have completed their graduate program (MA or PhD) prior to the beginning of the fellowship period in a field relevant to community history, and will have significant experience with methods of digital scholarship and with designing and/or creating relevant scholarly tools.

Interested individuals should provide a 2 page curriculum vitae as well as a statement of interest that provides an overview of relevant experience by September 5. Interested individuals should submit their applications and/or any questions to Patrick Yott, Director of the Center for Digital Scholarship, at Patrick_Yott@brown.edu.

About the Fox Point Project

Over the past two years, the JNBC’s Fox Point Community History Project has sought to collect and record historical and personal information about the neighborhood and to make that information available to scholars, students, and the general public. Using Brown University students as interviewers, the project has recorded approximately 60 interviews with former and current residents of Fox Point, business owners, ministers from the neighborhood’s churches, and other stakeholders. The digital recordings, along with typed transcripts and other materials, are being transferred to Brown University’s library and will become accessible via the web. The project has several goals:

• To record the memories and commentaries of individuals with first-person knowledge of Fox Point and to teach students interviewing skills
• To create a digital archive of primary source and interpretive materials that can be used for scholarly research, educational projects, and public programs
• To use the exploration and presentation of history as a means to help build connections between former and current residents of the neighborhood and to support the efforts of Fox Point residents, past and present, to examine their own community history
• To connect Brown University students and staff to the surrounding neighborhood in order to open dialogue about the impact of the university on Fox Point in the past and present, and to strengthen the neighborhood for the future
• To guide Brown University students through the complexities of undertaking community projects and public scholarship in order to prepare them for future careers in public humanities organizations           

Already, public humanities students have used the community history collection as the basis for a range of projects, including exhibits, audio documentaries and multimedia slide shows, and websites. In 2009, students in one course used the oral history interviews, historic photographs and records, and artifacts to develop an exhibit, “Remember the Old Times: Cape Verdean Fox Point.” That exhibit has been on display at the JNBC from May-October, 2009, and has generated much interest from former residents of the neighborhood. Also in 2009, public humanities students worked with teachers and students at the neighborhood’s elementary school to mount an exhibit and to collect oral history interviews with Fox Pointers that were later used in creative writing and theater performance pieces by 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th grade students. Another ongoing project has paired public humanities students with community historians; working together to locate historic and family photo collections, scan and post the photos on a flickr site [link] as a means to generate the sharing of images and information.

Given the success of the Fox Point Community History Project as a means to collect and present community history and to support community-based research and dialogue, the CDS and JNBC now aim to explore new directions in digital community history. Combining the oral history interviews, historical photograph and map collections, obituaries, organizational records, and other sources, the JNBC and Brown University’s Center for Digital Scholarship (CDS) can devise new ways to present the raw materials that make up community history, facilitate new means for users to search across media, and expand both scholarly and public examination and interpretation of these sources. By bringing together the technical and methodological innovations and standards developed by archives for managing digital collections, with the dynamic capacity of web2.0 programs to generate interaction, this new digital community history initiative will help stimulate new uses and audiences for neighborhood history materials. Moreover, by expanding access to neighborhood history information and encouraging public participation in the sharing and interpretation of materials, this new digital community history effort will help to generate new knowledge about Fox Point and will provide a model for other local history projects.

To date, the technologies perfected by university libraries and oral history projects, and those developed within the rapidly changing world of web 2.0, have operated on largely separate tracks. Libraries and archives have prioritized concerns about preservation and access to materials, leading to an emphasis on technical stability and searchability. In contrast, web 2.0 technologies, including flickr, have emphasized user-generated content, especially ease of access unimpeded by copyright restrictions, and the ability of users to monitor and oversee standards for use and information sharing. The digital fellow will work to bridge these technologies and methodologies, using the Fox Point Community History project to explore new ways to preserve and present materials and to engage the public through their use.

About Fox Point

Located next to Brown University’s campus, Fox Point is one of Providence’s oldest established neighborhoods. Bordered by water on three sides (with Brown University demarcating the area’s northern boundary), Fox Point became the center of Providence’s shipping industry and the home to its first railroad terminal. With plentiful work on the docks, the neighborhood attracted immigrants and migrants, especially men who came from Ireland (mid-19^th century), the Azores and the Cape Verde Islands (early 20^th century) to labor as stevedores and longshoremen. Other residents worked in nearby jewelry factories, ran shops and businesses in Fox Point, or performed domestic service within the homes of private families or on the Brown University campus. Until the 1950s, Fox Point thrived as a close-knit multiethnic community; supported by numerous churches, labor organizations, social welfare associations, and extended families. After World War II, however, the closing of Fox Point’s docks and warehouses, combined with massive highway construction, Brown University’s expansion, and historic preservation efforts dramatically transformed the area. Former scrap metal yards now make up India Point Park, a large waterfront recreational space, and the former docks now are lined with restaurants, bars, and art galleries. Today, few Cape Verdean, Portuguese, or Irish families reside in the neighborhood and the neighborhood’s upscale stores and restored homes primarily cater to a new population of students and faculty coming from Brown University and Rhode Island School of Design.

Despite their geographic dispersal, Fox Point’s former residents remain attached to the neighborhood, especially its churches and social organizations. In addition, former residents’ memories of the community remain strong; recollections of the past link individuals who are now scattered throughout southeastern New England or even beyond. Community initiatives to preserve and present the neighborhood’s history – efforts ranging from photo collection projects to documentary films – have helped to transmit stories about Fox Point across generations and to broaden interest among current Fox Point residents and students and scholars at nearby colleges.