Carleton University students have produced a digital timeline of the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences from its beginnings in 1938 to the present. Their timeline has been posted on the Federation website to celebrate its 75th anniversary.
Fourth-year undergraduate student Andrew Narraway says that the practicum provided him with an opportunity to get practical hands-on experience and gave him his very first taste of archival work:
“I learned the basic skills at Carleton for this kind of work and the practicum gave me the opportunity to put what I have learned to use. As an undergraduate you do not realize how much you are really learning over the course of the degree until you are placed in a situation where you have to use those skills, the placement was that situation for me.”
With fellow undergraduate Bruce Dolan, Narraway consulted historical material at Library and Archives Canada as part of the Practicum in History available to eligible third- and fourth-year students. Public History MA students Rob Blades and Thomas Berton continued with the research as interns and assembled the digital timeline. Carleton PhD graduate David Banoub played a key role at the outset in organizing ideas and printed materials.
The students worked under the supervision of adjunct research professor Dr. Matthew McKean. As Dr. McKean explained on Twitter, “The students engaged in interdisciplinary dialogue with the Federation’s past and navigated terrain between public memory and historical representation.” Click on the image below to follow his tweets.
Students engaged in interdisciplinary dialogue w/ the Federation's past & navigated terrain b/n public memory & historical representation.
— Matthew McKean (@MKMcKean) November 11, 2015