Items

• 
  2022-07-13

  Moving During the 2020 Pandemic

  During the 2020 pandemic, my family had to move to a different state. I remember the virus specifically affecting too much, though that might be because I wasn't too involved in the logistics. I just had to stay out of the way of the movers and keep all my stuff together, both of which I would have done anyway. It would have been a different story if we had to take an airplane instead of driving, as I was fortunate enough to have been able to do.
• 2020-03-11

  Same Reality, New Awareness

  Prior to the Pandemic, my life was like quarantining. Staying inside from Sun up till sun down unless absolutely necessary (school/laundry/grocery shopping, etc) was my life. I hardly did much physically and yet I was constantly mentally and physically exhausted. As COVID-19 began to spread around the world and billions were forced to stay inside their homes, the reactions from those who were not homebodies, surprised me. There were many people who were struggling mentally with the changes in their lives. Some now had a disrupted routine or structure, little to no social interactions, limited daily activities, and limited funds to provide for themselves or their family. As this had been my reality for so long, I was aware of how unhealthy it was but not how it could affect others. I had not realized what this type of life would look like for the average person. While I understood that other people have drastically different wants and needs than I do, their reactions to their new reality sparked new awareness in mine.
• 
  2020-12-01

  How history got me through lockdown

  A story I wrote about using history to keep a sense of perspective and gratitude through Melbourne's long lockdown in 2020. Coming against a background of university job losses and policies disfavouring humanities degrees I also wanted to let historians know that their work is important and has relevance.
• 
  2020-05

  Colorado Academy student prompt

  Description of assignment prompt given to Colorado Academy 6th grade students by instructor Eric Augustin- May 2020
• 
  2021-07-10

  Manzanar

  As a historian, US History teacher, and mother of two Asian-American children, I make a point to expose my children to all aspects of America’s history: good, bad, and ugly. Thanks to COVID, we had the opportunity to show the kids one of the country’s ugliest moments - Japanese internment. The desolate desert in the middle of our home state is an area I had never driven through before COVID, despite having lived in CA my entire life and being (supposedly) 8th or 9th generation Californian on my dad’s side. However, there is no way I’m putting my family on an airplane during a pandemic, which limits vacation options. So into the car for an eight hour drive to Tahoe. A drive that goes right past Manzanar, the Japanese American World War II concentration camp. Unlike last year, when we made the same drive for the first time in my life, the exhibits, buildings, and visitor center were open with masks and social distancing. As we stood in the barrack in the 106 degree temperature, I told my kids to never forget how uncomfortable they felt and to consider the fact that they were feeling awful from the heat as tourists. I told them to imagine living in this heat as a prisoner though you committed no crime except having ancestors from Japan. They may be young, but they are old enough to understand human rights. Visiting Manzanar was overwhelming. I am not a very emotional person, but I was taken aback by the fact that this history is so recent. My best friend’s dad was born in Tule Lake, where Japanese-Americans who refused to take the forced loyalty oath were sent. That is only one generation before mine. Seeing and experiencing second hand through family and friends the hatred directed toward Asian-Americans during this pandemic made the experience in Manzanar extra raw. Though I refuse to thank COVID for anything because I think that’s a bit tone deaf for all who have lost and suffered during this pandemic, I am grateful that the circumstances that led us to drive to Tahoe instead of fly led us also to a place of reflection on prejudice and race, especially in the climate of today.
• 
  2021-05-27

  Teachers Rock

  Right before COVID-19 hit my husband made the transition from active duty military to reservist. After eight years we were finally given the gift to settle down and live a "normal" life. January of 202 we moved into our home and three months later we were facing a quarantine. That same in the midst of that my daughter started kindergarten. It was a moment I had thought of for quite some time. In my mind, I would take lots of pictures, walk her to her class and tearfully walk back to my car and having a pity party about my growing girl. Instead, my daughter spent her first day at home in front of a computer while I fought to get into her virtual classroom. For months we dealt with virtual than in class then back to virtual learning as COVID cases peaked. My daughters Kindergarten teacher was the only constant bright light throughout the school year. Through it all she worked tirelessly to make sure the kids had a positive school experience. She went out of her way to make sure the school brought them joy in the midst of the chaotic year, having her in my daughter's life became personal to my family. At the end of the school year she sent out her last newsletter thanking parents but the reality of it is- she was a complete rockstar and we will forever be grateful. I wanted to share her last newsletter in hopes that it reflects an ounce of how difficult this school year was for teachers and how resilient children were.
• 
  2021-05-06

  APUSH - Online Learning Edition

  The first time I saw over 75% of my 171 APUSH students in person was the morning of the test. One girl brought me a bouquet and said “I wanted to give you this today because it will probably be the only time I see you.” What a strange, strange year. The kids I teach are my life, I usually can tell you at least 10 specific weird things about each of them. I’m embarrassed to say I can’t this year - how do you REALLY get to know a kid over Zoom? Still, I am touched by the level of connection we were able to make. And I was amazed that out of 171 kids, 170 came before the test to say hi and pick up their goodie bag. After the test, they rushed back to see me and tell me how they felt. For that moment, it was like any other year. I truly feel I gave them the very best of me, I never “phoned it in” and even this week, in our last five days of school, we’re doing modern topics until the end. But I will always feel guilty. Because despite giving my best, I know it doesn’t live up to a normal in person year. Still, their happy faces and kind words show that despite my own internal disappointment, the kids are alright and it wasn’t a total loss for them. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t looking forward to the fall, having my tables back and full classes five days a week. Yet, these kids who I shared a Zoom screen with for 180 days will always hold a special place in my heart. I may not know them at the level I usually do, but their perseverance and diligence in ever changing circumstances will also motivate me to continue to give the best of me.
• 
  2021-04-25

  Julia Jensen Portfolio

  Going into this internship, I really didn’t know what to expect. Throughout undergrad, I worked full time jobs and did not have the time to take on any internships or research positions, so this was my first experience with it. I also was studying anthropology and was uncertain what path I wanted to take, making it hard to find internships that felt applicable to my future. Once I decided to study history with a goal of pursuing a public history career, this internship seemed like an incredible opportunity to learn more about the field and get a feel for what a possible future career could be. Thanks to the Public History Methodology course taught by Dr. Mark Tebeau, I did have a decent amount of knowledge of what public history consisted of, which made it clearer to me what I wanted to pursue and gave me an understanding on which I could build throughout this internship. Working with JOTPY provided hands-on experience in which I could apply this knowledge and learn the applicable skills necessary to practice public history. These skills included managing metadata, conducting and transcribing oral histories, marketing new collections, prioritizing the safety and privacy of contributors, learning to work with a team remotely, and acknowledging and confronting the silences present in the archive. As I continue to volunteer with JOTPY past the end of my internship, I hope to strengthen these skills, growing more comfortable with curating so that I may carry that with me once I move on from this archive. Given that this was my first experience like this, much of the work I did was initially out of my comfort zone. The scope of this archive was a bit intimidating, and I did not initially understand how important and impactful JOTPY is and will continue to be, even past the pandemic. As the weeks went on, I grew more comfortable curating, as well as interacting with the team over Slack and Zoom, which I hadn’t utilized very much before this internship. I was also unfamiliar with marketing something like a collection, so having the opportunity to do so pushed me past my comfort zone and taught me how to better write for a public audience in a way that is both succinct and engaging. I learned that I really enjoy this type of work, particularly when it came to creating a collection, as it gave me the opportunity to address a silence and advocate for an underappreciated group of people while pulling from personal experience and situations that I have observed. My goal in life is to help people, and this was a great opportunity to help in a more subtle, behind-the-scenes sort of way. Since I had already hoped to pursue a career in the field of public history, specifically working with museums, this internship did not necessarily change my approach; however, it did strengthen my desire to work in this field, and taught me the necessary skills to feel confident that this is the right path for me.
• 
  2021-04-25

  Robert Baker-Nicholas Portfolio

  The internship experience has been one that has taught me many new and different skills that I did not have before or were very low on my abilities prior to this experience. Before I started this internship I had no experience in the field of public history or curation. I gained skills like learning how to preserve various sources for future posterity. I learned the process of properly using a system like Omeka, securing digital sources for the future, working on collections, oral histories, and more. The oral history part of my internship gave me skills that I can bring into my current role as a Social Studies Curriculum Coordinator by having some of our teachers encourage our students to conduct oral histories of our local town members in order to meet their standards in our state. My school uses the hands-on teaching method in order to bring the curriculum alive and this could be one way to implement and bring history alive. I also sharpened my skills of teamwork, collaboration, and virtual zooming in order to meet a project end goal. One thing this experience has taught me is that the pandemic has caused technology and collaboration to be taken to a next level and that I feel it will continue to grow and change in the future. This experience will also be memorable due to the fact that the actual documentation of the history is occurring while the events are happening not after the fact which is a unique experience.
• 
  2021-04-21

  James Rayroux's JOTPY Portfolio

  --Reflections on the Pandemic Archive-- Looking back over my experience with the “Journal of the Plague Year” COVID-19 archive, my prevailing emotion is gratitude. This opportunity granted me experience that few historians earn, and the remote, asynchronous work schedule allowed me to collaborate with my colleagues in ways that maximized our respective contributions. The breadth and depth of our individual experiences and perspectives tremendously improved our collective process and products. I spent enough time in the Arizona State Archives last year to recognize such collections as historical treasure chests, but I have now participated in processing an archive’s content and navigating the ethical dilemmas those submissions sometimes create. Archivists and curators are the history profession’s truly unsung heroes, and their work facilitates society’s perception of itself. My background in police work and public safety drew me to the archive’s existing Law Enforcement collection. In taking on that subset, I succeeded in reshaping the collection’s parameters to now include stories about police and law enforcement. I wanted to diversify the collection to encompass perspective of both the police and the public with whom they interact and serve. While some overlap exists between the Law Enforcement and Social Justice collections, each remains distinct. Through my contacts and writing, I promoted a Call for Submissions to an international audience of law enforcement professionals to reduce their relative silence within the archive. Within the archive’s content, I recognized that one’s location might shape their pandemic experience, and I created and designed an Arizona-based exhibit to explore that. Further research and discussion with my mentors and colleagues ensured the exhibit illustrated these differences without excluding visitors whose diverse experiences could further enrich the archived and exhibited content. I am proud of my “Arizona’s COVID-19 Pandemics” exhibit, particularly because of its compressed, one-month incubation period. Beyond displaying images, data, and stories representative of the diverse pandemic experiences within the state, the ACP exhibit offers visitors numerous levels of interaction and engagement to became active participants and create their own exhibit experience. Visitors can complete opinion surveys, add a story to the archive, explore additional content related to the displayed pieces, view ever-changing results from pre-defined archival content searches, conduct their own archival search, view collective visitor survey results, and apply to join the staff. The exhibit’s searches will include the archive’s future submissions, which reshapes both the exhibit and the experience visitors may have with it. A more detailed explanation of my ACP exhibit may be reviewed here: https://covid-19archive.org/s/archive/item/43037 Because of Dr. Kathleen Kole de Peralta and Dr. Mark Tebeau, I stand prepared to join research, curation, and exhibition teams and immediately contribute to their work products. Despite my gratitude for this experience and the opportunities it presented, I look forward to the day COVID-19 is no longer part of humanity’s daily vernacular. James Rayroux 22 April 2021
• 
  2021-03-13

  Friday the 13th...my last day at work

  This is a reflection of the first day that Covid affected me.
• 
  2020-06-01

  High School Students Reflect on JOTPY Archive

  In May 2020, my high school students reflected on the JOTPY archive, noting the submissions that most resonated with them and the least. Some also addressed what they saw as silences in the archive. I put their responses in a document for myself to help guide me as I helped build the JOTPY teaching site. However, a year after beginning to work on the project, I find their responses very insightful, particularly their recognition that the racial prejudice facing the Black and AAPI communities needs to be better highlighted.
• 
  2020-07-21

  Photos from Remembrance of Philando Castile rally

  Hindsight is 20/20. Unless you're Jeff Bezos, this year has likely been really difficult (and it might get worse). I'm trying to challenge myself to look back at 2020, not only remembering the injustice, corruptness, and trauma of it - but all the friends made, hugs shared, and inspiring moments I got to witness. ⁣ ⁣ Lots of love to everyone who has been cheering me on locally and beyond. It's made this year a bit easier. That being said, call your mom. Embrace seeing a therapist. Hit up that friend you've been meaning to catch up with. ⁣ ⁣Photos from Remembrance of Philando Castile rally, July 6, 2020
• 
  2021-01-01

  Summer Reflection

  In March of 2020 the state of Idaho enacted a stay at home order. As a teacher I began teaching from home and my husband (a second year medical student) began attending all of his lectures from his office. In my mind I thought, "wow, we're going to get to slow down for a moment." I was so wrong. As a teacher I felt well prepared to move my students online. We already had the tools and platforms in place to make the transition go well. However, I wasn't ready for the overwhelming anxiety that came with the idea of walking away from my computer at the end of the day. Needless to say we continued on with our busy life from the confines of our 3rd story apartment. I continued my grad school class and teaching online while my husband continued studying and preparing for his first board exam. Over the summer I interned with JOTPY. The 12 hour / week commitment to the internship seemed doable and I was ready to be working on something. I'm not entirely sure what happened over the summer but I seem to have been so busy that it quickly turned into a whirlwind. The pandemic was supposed to have this major impact on what I was doing but I found ways to stay exceptionally busy. All of this to say I didn't have time to really reflect on my summer and internship experience. Looking back all I can say is wow. I was cleaning out my desk area last week in preparation for the return to work and grad school and as I was flipping through my notebook I found this page. This page represents a night from this summer that is hard to forget. I was busy working through my curation assignments in preparation to take the weekend off. However, about halfway through my assignment my curation group (shoutout to group 4!) starting chatting via Slack. We we just 4 students who were assigned to a group and we hadn't really chatted before. Suddenly we were talking about everything under the sun while all working through our curation assignments. I don't know that I have more to say on it except that it was fun and joyful. As 2020 turned to 2021 I started to reflect on the year that turned life upside down and I realized that it brought so much joy. While my husband and I have been blessed with our continued health throughout the year we acknowledge those who have not.
• 2020-12-05

  Reflections on working at a US Military Hotel/Quarantine Facility and Getting Tested for COVID

  In this story I would like to share some of my experiences working at a Hotel that was converted into a quarantine facility for the US Military. I am a civilian employee of a US Army Lodging facility on a US Army base overseas. As a part of my job, I assist soldiers in finding temporary lodging during their permanent change of station (PCS) moves, as well as finding lodging during temporary deployments in our area. In many ways, our facility works as a hotel with an emphasis on long term stays for guests. By early February we had begun to take measures of tracking where people were traveling from and if they had any contact with people who had be sick or were sick themselves. In March, as the pandemic was heating up in Europe, many local hotels were forced to close, yet to support the military mission, we remained open and even converted a portion of our facility into a quarantine facility for US Military personnel. Establishing the new standard operating procedure for handling quarantine was difficult since we needed to coordinate it with local German Laws, Garrison policy and the policies being set by the local combatant commands. This often led to confusion and frequent changes in daily routine and standard operating procedure. When coming to work, things would change almost daily. While the Garrison went to partial manning as those who could work at home did, I was working double shifts to help in the conversion of our facility and the writing of the new SOP’s to deal with our changing circumstances. Large plexiglass windows were added to the Front Desk and all our office spaces. Per garrison orders mask wearing became mandatory throughout the facility except for guests inside guest rooms. Wearing masks for hours on end, and frequent sanitation runs to wipe down the stairways and elevators and lobby became the norm. Given the importance of maintain health and readiness, the Military took the situation vary seriously in terms of sanitation and protection measures. When One of my colleagues had tested positive for COVID, the others she had direct contact with were placed in Quarantine and sent to be tested as well. They were required to have two negative tests 5 days apart before they could leave quarantine. When I became sick with flu-like symptoms, I was sent to be tested for COVID. The Garrison established a drive through testing area. The test consisted of a nasal swab, which could be done either as the less invasive swab just inside the nose, or the more invasive same day test which required the swab to be taken deeper in the nose for 10 seconds. After filling out a questionnaire, they determined that I needed the more invasive test. After reaching the end of the line, I leaned out of the window of my car they tested me. It was a rather painful experience. Within 8 hours of the test, I was able to access my test results online. Luckily, I tested negative. As it turns out I had only a regular seasonal flu. If I had tested positive, I would have been contacted by a training team on the same day of my test, and the colleagues that I worked with would have had to enter quarantine as well. Since I tested negative, I only had to remain at home away from work until 48 hours after my last symptoms. Attached is a copy of the COVID testing information sheet provided to me after my test.
• 2020-11-25

  Pandemic Poetry, Poem: Untitled

  "1816 has been described as "The Year Without a Summer." For me, 2020 has been like "The Year Without a Year." It has been like being in "Limbo," a year of Purgatory, the "Trump Bardo" - that intermediate state where you weather a s**t-storm of hypocrisy, lies, and disease before passing on to the next level of existence. How do I weather it? With humor, a lyrical outlook, exercise, perseverance, and family." -Dan Nave
• 
  2020-10-14

  Reflections on Exchange and the Pandemic

  I wrote this article in October 2020, 7 months after I was forced to return home early from my university exchange semester in Edinburgh. Shared with my friends on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, the article put it into words thoughts and feelings that had been on my mind for the previous 7 months. In it, I tried to capture how my last few days in Edinburgh felt: the rapid pace of COVID closures, the sudden goodbyes, the panic about travel plans and illness. Writing the article was an enormously cathartic process, and helped me process the confusing mix of emotions that I'd felt since returning to Melbourne. It is, far and away, the most complete summary of my experience of the pandemic that I can offer.
• 
  2020-10-02

  Parallels between today and the "Spanish flu" of the 1910's

  It shows that this time feels very significant in the eyes of those going through it; it made me seek out and reflect on history in an attempt to understand the current moment.
• 
  2020-08-26

  Reflection on contributing to the Archive

  After working on stories that would appear on this archive, I reflected what it was like report during this pandemic.
• 
  2020-04-26

  My Isolation

  Gennady Khodov provides his reflections on quarantine