This post was written by Martina Dodd (@Tracingpavement), who received a DLF HBCU Fellowship to attend the 2018 Forum.
Martina is an Atlanta-based art historian, writer, and the Museum Education Curator for the Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums (GLAM) Center for Collaborative Teaching and Learning at the Atlanta University Center (AUC) Robert W. Woodruff Library.
Her concept-driven shows have touched on topics relating to race, gender and power dynamics. Including her most recent exhibition Black Interiors, which is an exploration of the Black aesthetic and psyche through artistic renderings of the home and stylized representations of the human form, opening this fall at Clark Atlanta University Art Museum.
She has presented research, spoken on panels and curated exhibitions at the Urban Institute of Contemporary Art, Prince George’s African American Museum and Cultural center, DC Arts Center, Transformer, Flux Factory and Common Field Convening. She has published articles, exhibition reviews, and catalogue essays with DIRT, BmoreArts, Common Field’s Field Perspectives, Clark Atlanta University Art Museum, and Morton Fine Art.
Dodd holds a M.A. in the Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas from the University of East Anglia and a B.A. in Anthropology and International Studies from Johns Hopkins University.
It was an honor and pleasure to be one of the DLF HBCU Fellows for this year’s DLF Forum. As someone who just recently entered the library field, the forum offered me direct access to veterans in the field and ample opportunity for hands-on development in digital pedagogy practices. The Teaching Primary Sources Through a Digital Lens: Challenges and Opportunities panel resonated with me the most. The session provided several very different examples of how professors utilized a digital repository in their classes to promote archival literacy and digital scholarship. This was especially valuable information to bring back to my institution, Atlanta University Center (AUC) Robert W. Woodruff Library, and share with other library staff and faculty who are curious about alternative ways of incorporating primary source materials into the classroom.
Through a generous grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the AUC established the GLAM Center for Collaborative Teaching and Learning last year to introduce faculty to object-based pedagogical models and visual thinking strategies to stimulate cross disciplinary teaching and learning. A major part of this initiative has been to increase visibility, discoverability, and usage of the archival materials and artworks from Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Clark Atlanta University Art Museum, and the AUC Archives Research Center, through the creation of our digital portal (which launched earlier this year). Hearing about the creation of a digital platform for the US Holocaust Memorial Museum which allows students to actively engage with artifacts and original historical documents related to the Holocaust has inspired me to think even more creatively in how the GLAM Center Digital portal (http://glam.auctr.edu/) can act as a digital teaching and learning tool.
Hearing about the creation of a digital platform for the US Holocaust Memorial Museum which allows students to actively engage with artifacts and original historical documents related to the Holocaust has inspired me to think even more creatively in how the GLAM Center Digital portal can act as a digital teaching and learning tool.
I also appreciated hearing some of the challenges professors faced when using digital repositories in their classes, as well as hearing the concerns from archivists in the audience who voiced their fear of digital platforms becoming “archives without archivists.” Since the forum, I have reflected on my experience and I am confident that the information gathered from each session I attended will contribute to the continued success of the AUC GLAM Center for Collaborative Teaching and Learning.
Want to know more about the DLF Forum Fellowship Program? Check out last year’s call for applications.
If you’d like to get involved with the scholarship committee for the 2019 Forum (October 13-16, 2019 in Tampa, FL), look for the Planning Committee sign-up form later this year. More information about 2019 fellowships will be posted in late spring.
