Although Thursday’s class was not my first time in MARBL, it was the first time I was able to get an in depth look at what the collection had to offer.  It was unbelievable to see how well maintained a book from the 13th century is  and how archivists have preserved rare gems such as a scrap piece of toilet paper. In a time where the vast majority of us use online databases and the internet to access information, it was refreshing to see print sources that could be used as an alternative research tool.

Not exactly about our class, but some good information for those of you who are not in your final year.

http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/06/how-to-succeed-in-college/

Beside the fact that I was in the same room with a draft of Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, I think the thing that struck me most about our time in MARBL on Thursday was how much we bring to our own interpretations of artifacts. Each one of us looked at the photo of the protest in front of Cox Hall in 1969 that Liz Chase and Erica Bruchko provided and saw such different things. I was also really excited by what astute critical skills you all already have. You read that photo: fashion, hair styles, body language, interactions, and used those clues to work toward solving the mystery of what event the picture was capturing. I can’t wait to see what else you all come up with.

This course aims to investigate how the discourse of sexuality was created by and represented in two of Emory’s publications (Emory Wheel, Emory Report– formerly called Campus Report). These representations will then be located within a larger historical and theoretical context of sexual identity, sexual health, and sexual violence. Half of our class time will be spent in the Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library (MARBL) uncovering a record of what was and was not discussed in these publications.  The other half of class time will be spent discussing scholarship that will locate and situate our findings while engaging new technologies to help develop a final presentation of our work. Students will not only be introduced to the history and present of sexuality discourse at Emory (and in the South), they will also learn how to do archival research and develop digital scholarship.