Durba Mitra (Committee on Degrees in the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality)
First-Year Seminar 74J 4 credits (Fall Term) Enrollment: Limited to 12
Monday, 12:00 PM–2:45 PM CANVAS SITE
How do we make a record of our own lives and histories? Whose lives get preserved in archives and what histories and lifeworlds are lost in official records of the past? In this class, students have the opportunity to get lost in the many rich repositories, archives, and museums of Harvard University. In our course readings and our class visits to the diverse archives and museums at Harvard, we will focus on histories of women, queer and trans communities, and the many historically marginalized people who are both absent and present in collections. You will learn about what an archive is and how to explore the worlds preserved in the rich collections of Harvard University. Every other week, we will embark on a journey into a different repository at Harvard. In this project of exploration, we will critically engage everything from official university records to personal papers, paintings, and photographs. What ideas and people can be found in Harvard’s vast archives and what histories have been lost in our records of the past? Our final project, “Harvard’s Lost and Found,” will be a podcast assignment where you explore the archives at Harvard to find and research your own lost object.