Building Bridges through Community History, Technology, and Service Learning: The Digital Durham Project

In 2001, Professor Abel modified her research seminar on Durham and the New South so that her Duke undergraduates met for an extra period each week to mentor eighth graders at a local public school. Over the course of the semester, Duke students conducted research on the history of their adopted community, Durham, by visiting the Special Collections Library at Duke and other research repositories. Additionally, the Duke students had weekly visits with an eighth-grade teacher and her students in which they explored the history of Durham with their middle school partners through census data, maps, and primary documents on the Digital Durham website (http://digitaldurham.duke.edu). Professor Abel will discuss the origins and evolution of  the Digital Durham Project and what happens in a classroom when undergraduates meld research with service learning.