Author: Natalie Lafferty

So far, this project has been progressing pretty smoothly for me with my major setbacks centering only around busy schedules and work for other classes. Originally, like Michael mentioned in his most recent post, my group had the general goal of capturing marginalized voices. We determined that this goal is easier said than done. For me personally, I struggled to find connections to these groups as we have been in lock down and, unfortunately, people have been less willing than I thought to provide items/stories/testimonies to be archived. As a result, my group shifted gears to first reach out to our close communities and eventually expand our web of connections to reach other groups. I decided to first reach out to my swim team at Carleton and some family members, transcribing mini interviews and learning more about my friends and simultaneously deepening our relationship. This extra benefit has been super rewarding as it has provided me with an outlet to connect with my Carleton peers even though we are not physically on campus. Alongside these interviews, I have been searching for examples of positivity, attempting to boost both my spirits and document communities coming together despite social isolation.

Currently, I am focusing more on the second pathway, driving around town to try and find more examples of positive signage and symbols. I have found recent signs outside of nursing homes and small businesses that I am working on uploading to the archive. Continuing on the theme of nursing homes, I have completed an interview with a high school student who works at a nursing home, uploaded a picture of my grandmother at a Mother’s Day celebration at her nursing home, and have found a “heroes work here” sign outside of a local nursing home. I think my efforts in capturing at least some of the staff’s and residents’ experiences reflect Katy Cole de Peralta’s goal of inclusion. My new challenge for this project, inspired by Katy, is to focus on including a few marginalized or silenced voices, primarily within the nursing home community.

Moving forward, I would like to focus on positivity as that is something I have been struggling with as this school year has been winding down and summer plans have been adjusted. I feel like a lot of our Carleton archive is composed of documents and texts, so I want to contribute more images that the future students will study when learning about this pandemic. Written documents have their advantages, of course, but images can be really intriguing, allowing the viewer to imagine living as we currently are. I am excited for the continuation of this project and want to add as much as possible this upcoming week! As Michael mentioned, I would love for our group to interview each other and I am toying with the possibility of uploading some excerpts/reflections from my personal handwritten journal.

Natalie Lafferty

My work so far has focused on two main themes: positivity within communities and personal testimonies on COVID-19’s impact on individuals’ personal relationships and connections. I believe these mini interviews/testimonies best match with the statements and goals underlined in the Value of History document. Listed in this article are seven ways in which history is relevant and significant. One point provided is that history can engage citizens by encouraging an understanding of the past and allowing active participation in the documentation of the present. I believe my mini interviews have allowed individuals to recognize their position in history as future primary sources, realizing the impact that they have on the legacy of this pandemic. The article also mentions that democracy thrives on the multitude of these conversations as complexities start to reveal themselves and supersede generalizations. In other words, by actively encouraging individuals to tell their story and reaffirming their place in history, different perspectives and ideas are documented. As a result, the legacy of COVID-19 will be very rich and nuanced and hopefully will encourage future civic engagement as well! At first, I struggled to find people who were willing to engage in this project. Possibly, there was confusion over the goals of archiving or what should be documented. It was hard to try and promote the concept of shared authority when no one seemed active and ready to share. I knew I could rely on things I came across, but I wanted to capture another’s story. I learned that sometimes it just takes asking for five minutes of someone’s time to get the ball rolling.

Natalie Lafferty

We are focusing on the perspectives from a variety of social groups and how they have been impacted by COVID-19. Our goal is to collect the stories and experiences of marginalized groups, but we realize that there are some barriers to that for some members of our group. All three of our group members have slightly different goals for this project, but ultimately they all examine the social consequences of this virus. We also see the value in documenting not only negative consequences of this pandemic but also ways in which people are coming together and supporting each other. But, we also want to capture the positive aspects of this time more broadly and explore the room for individual growth that people see in this experience.

Natalie is focusing on how different families have been affected by COVID-19, reaching out to a diverse group of individuals, geographically, structurally, economically, etc, and interviewing them to document how their family dynamics have been altered by this virus. In addition, I am capturing how families are staying positive during this time. Through images of chalk art, encouraging words on signs in their yard, social media posts, and other examples, I would like to highlight how families and organizations are supporting their community and first responders. As of now, I have been reaching out to members of my community to start getting responses and eventually have the goal of including more marginalized groups in my documentation. 

Anne is focusing on the impact that Covid-19 has on international students around the world. Many people do not see international students as marginalized, and this generalized assumption might be true in normal times. However, I see how pandemic can shift the social dynamic and position of people, disadvantaging certain groups of students who we simply believe them to be privileged and do not take into consideration. I do not like to ignore the voices of people by dwelling on the normative idea of marginalization. In this vein, I would like to highlight the experiences of international students by documenting interviews and collecting news articles and comments. 

Michael is interested in preserving the memory of marginalized groups by archiving different types of media to capture how the coronavirus has politically and socially impacted these groups. These groups’ identities are threatened by the current political dialogue and by barriers placed on them by society which makes it more difficult for them to share their stories. I believe it is necessary to preserve the memory of these groups to prevent their experiences from being ignored or falling through the cracks of time. However, I want to recognize everyone’s experiences are important to document at this time and I am open to sharing anyone’s stories. I will be using a variety of media to capture the experiences of different people.