The Muhlenberg Memories Project gives prominence to the landscape, time, and history that shaped Muhlenberg College.We value the individual, the singular building, or illuminating episode that serves as a micro-history of broader historical currents affecting the culture as a whole. Our pedagogical goal, drawn from theory and praxis, is to bring to light the many stories that await our discovery as we explore primary sources and create digital narratives.
By providing access to primary sourcesâthose that exist in the College archives and those that are gathered as oral historiesâand by facilitating analysis, interpretation, and storymaking through pedagogy, the Project collaborators use an integrative learning approach to sharing the history of Muhlenberg and its community partners.
Navigation of the Muhlenberg Memories Project may be experienced as âchaptersâ in College and Lehigh Valley history. Alternatively, the visitor can view discrete elements of the Project, including primary sources, pedagogical praxis, student-created digital stories, timelines, and more.
The Project, built on a liberal arts foundation, draws from multiple disciplinary traditions. Through the lens of Muhlenbergâs history, students critically explore the complexity, diversity, and changes in the wider culture. They find their place on the continuum of the Collegeâs history: they come to recognize that they are part of a story, a community, that is larger than their four-year experience.
The Team
Kate Ranieri, a lifelong social justice advocate, teaches the art and practice of creating ethically grounded, evidence-based short documentaries through collaborations across disciplinary boundaries within the liberal arts college and with community partners. Studentsâ digital stories, made accessible to the public, grapple with what Robert Coles calls âthe moral underpinnings of social inquiryâ as they seek to do justice to justice to their subjects, who honor American social documentary traditions and, quite frequently, who make the conditions the subjects confront more humane.
Susan Falciani Maldonado is the Special Collections & Archives Librarian at Trexler Library. She is responsible for special collections instruction, exhibits, and outreach initiatives, in addition to collections maintenance and processing and digital projects. These varied responsibilities allow her to facilitate the telling of forgotten stories of Muhlenberg College and its people in light of historical themes.
Anthony (Tony) Dalton is the Digital Cultures Media Technologist: a dual-report role connecting the Office of Information Technology and the Department of Media and Communication. Tonyâs responsibilities range from management and strategy, to design and production, to technical support and instruction. He encourages self-actualized passion and unrestricted nerdiness through his play-centric, humanizing practices.
