COM 433-Documentary Fieldwork develops advanced skills in documentary inquiry and practice. It provides tools and opportunities for developing skills in interviewing for archival, journalistic (print and electronic), social scientific, and administrative purposes. As an Integrative Learning course, it also introduces the principles and practices that archivists and records managers apply, including appraisal, arrangement, preservation, and management. The course is organized using an interconnected design 1) to identify, select, organize, preserve, and make accessible historical materials in a variety of archival formats to the public at large and 2) to design and develop individual or group documentary projects in selected media. Completed project(s) will be exhibited in some campus or public forum and online.
Integrative learning enables students to make connections that combine disparate disciplinary, methodological, ideological, or epistemological perspectives. Integrative learning entails applying multiple ways of knowing to concepts and experiences. Effective integrated learning empowers students to recognize and solve problems, address existing questions, and ask new ones in more comprehensive ways.
Integrative Learning is not mastered but constantly develops and is honed in many ways. At Muhlenberg, the Integrative Learning curricular requirement provides opportunities for intentionally cultivating this way of thinking in collaborative environments and communities.
