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K-State Today

February 27, 2018

Chapman Center faculty invited to speak about digital history

Submitted by Bonnie Lynn-Sherow

Poster of Researched Communities by CCRS

MJ Morgan and Bonnie Lynn-Sherow in the Chapman Center for Rural Studies, are back on campus after giving talks at the University of Cincinnati Public Humanities Forum Series and University of Kansas' Hall Center for Digital Humanities Speaker Series. To date, the center's undergraduate researchers have worked with 31 out-of-state institutions and 100 Kansas museums, historical societies, libraries, archives and special collections in its mission to research, preserve, and share the history of rural Kansas. This year marks 10 years since the launch of the NEH-sponsored Lost Kansas Communities Digital Archive.

Morgan, Chapman Center research director, gave a talk titled "Every Small Town was Someone's Hometown: Researching Lost Communities" on Feb. 13. She also addressed undergraduate students majoring in museum studies on how the Chapman Center students and interns interact and engage with rural museums. Morgan later gave a graduate practicum in public history on best practices in collecting oral history and interviewing.

Lynn-Sherow, executive director of the Chapman Center, presented at the University of Kansas' Digital Humanities Seminar Feb. 19. Her lecture, "The Digital Natives Are Not Restless. They Are Not Even Native" documented the Chapman Center's decadelong journey of using digital tools to promote undergraduate education through engagement. The forum included a dynamic question-and-answer session.

The Chapman Center for Rural Studies is a Center of Excellence in the College of Arts and Sciences and will host an open house to celebrate its 10 year anniversary April 19-20 at the center in Leasure Hall. All members of campus and the public are invited to attend.