Prof. Anderson: Archiving and Digitizing the Asian Americans in the Heartland

Participating in this FYRE opportunity will introduce students to critical historical thinking, archival, and digital humanities skills. This includes locating, tracing, and digitizing documents, photographs, newspaper articles, land deeds, maps, etc. of Asian American communities across Nebraska, visiting nearby archives to corroborate findings (e.g., Nebraska State Historical Society, UNL Special Collections and Archives), and using digital humanities methods to tag, create metadata, and OCR historical materials. If the student is interested, Prof. Anderson is open and willing to work with students to translate their findings into written summaries/essays and put together talks for local and regional conferences.

Students with a passion for storytelling, discovering historical materials, crafting networks and connections, and/or a desire to tell a more holistic Heartland history should apply for this opportunity. Strong reading and writing skills are needed to work through the historical materials, and basic computer skills (e.g., typing, building spreadsheets, etc.) will be used to build the digital archive. The ability to read cursive is preferred, but not required. Students from any major may apply, and those curious about pursuing careers in History, Ethnic Studies, English, Political Science, Sociology, Global Studies, Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, and related fields may find this opportunity particularly well aligned with their interests.

Effective mentors understand diverse perspectives and experiences to translate them into common outcomes that utilize both the mentor's and mentee's existing strengths and desired skills. In academic and research settings, establishing common goals ensures that all participants in a project understand and achieve their expectations, without the specter of surveillance, while targeting and creating opportunities for skills development and growth. Understanding each other's roles and responsibilities, while being conscious of everyone's independent goals and desired outcomes, enables mentors and mentees to have a structured yet flexible learning and research environment. As such, my research project offers both in-person progress check-ins and facilitated group brainstorming sessions, while also allowing students to complete their research remotely, in their own time.

Calling upon my over fifteen years in education, I strive to be a mentor who builds relational communities, where students are encouraged to pursue their investments in caring and accepting environments, whether that be a classroom or a lab. In building connections with my mentees, I seek to harness their unique experiences and talents in order to encourage investment in learning and problem-solving. Beyond the research project, I work with students to design their own personal research goals with their educational aspirations in mind. As such, I help scaffold plans and identify opportunities for students to expand on their aspirations and explore areas of curiosity within the field of History, the law, and the humanities, more broadly.