Archives Concentration

The Archives Concentration is open to any student by application and includes the following requirements:

• A partial-credit gateway course (ARX 140 or 141)
• Four existing courses offered in departments or programs that involve significant archival research (courses are approved by the ARX advisory committee). (A student may count a maximum of three courses toward the concentration that she also elects to count toward the major.)
• The capstone seminar, involving an independent research project, usually an exhibit, and a presentation at Celebrating Collaborations.
• Two practical experiences or internships

Internships

Internships are an integral element of the Archives Concentration. Students complete two internships (paid or supported by Praxis) that enable each student to acquire practical, first-hand knowledge of the professional work of archivists, curators and archival researchers. Concentrators are eligible to receive a second summer of Praxis funding through Smith’s Praxis Plus program. Students can also support internships through the Rosenthal Fund.

To count toward the concentration, an internship will:

• Consist of at least 100 hours of work (or 220 hours if receiving Praxis funding)
• Let students gain skills in processing collections, writing finding aids or subject guides, or making exhibits or creating social media with archival materials in at least one of their internships
• Be supervised by a professional at least once a week
• Be approved by the concentration adviser
• Come from a wide array of local, regional, national and international opportunities that are identified and/or approved by the concentration. Students are responsible for researching and securing appropriate internships.

Other Practical Experiences

Some other experiences such as working for faculty members in archival projects through CFCD grants or Quigley fellowships may also qualify as one of the two practical experiences.

If you already completed one or more practical experiences (internships, paid or volunteer work) before entering the Archives Concentration, you are still eligible to receive credit for these experiences.

You will need to document your experience as follows:

1. Complete the Practical Experience Approval Form with your concentration adviser
2. Submit the Superviser Evaluation
3. Write a reflection paper (about two pages) that addresses the following questions:

• What were your main duties and accomplishments during your internship, volunteer or work experience?
• What aspects of your experience were most valuable?
• What insights did you gain about yourself and your preferred working style?
• What did the experience help you to think about your future career goals?

Gateway Course

The gateway course to the Archives Concentration introduces students to area sites of potential research and internships, and introduces students to the Smith and Five College network of archivists, faculty researchers and potential advisers for senior projects.

ARX 141 What I Found at the Archives
This lecture series serves as an introduction to the methods and discoveries of archival research. The course highlights faculty members and archivists describing their puzzles and insights in encountering archival materials. Requirements includes active participation in class, weekly readings, and short written assignments. This course serves as a gateway for students in the Archives Concentration. Graded S/U only. {H} Credits: 1 Normally offered each spring

Capstone Seminar

ARX 340 Taking the Archives Public
The capstone seminar brings together a cohort of concentrators to explore contemporary issues at the intersection of archives and public history. The seminar readings focus each week on case studies about contemporary challenges in preservation, access and interpretation of archival materials. In a variety of media, students analyze how these materials become part of a meaningful and usable past for general audiences. In addition, each concentrator completes an independent project, usually an exhibit that draws upon concentrators’ own expertise developed through their coursework and their practical experiences. Enrollment limited to 15. {H} Credits: 4
Kelly Anderson
Normally offered each spring

Electives in the Concentration

The courses listed here may be counted as electives toward the Archives Concentration only when you have completed an archival paper or project for the course. Not all of these courses are offered each year. Consult the Smith College Course Search for current offerings and times.. Five College courses that meet these criteria may be counted toward the concentration. You should discuss all of your courses for the concentration with your ARX adviser.

First-Year Courses

• FYS 120 Writing Home 
• FYS 149 An Even Playing Field: Women, Sport and Equity 
• FYS 153 The Bollywood Matinee: Gender, Nation and Globalization through the Lens of Popular Indian Cinema
• FYS 161 Immiagration and the New Multiethnic Societies
• FYS 179 Rebellious Women
• FYS 171 Women Writing Resistance
• FYS 182 Fighting the Power
• FYS 184 Educating Women
• FYS 187 Writers and the Body: Health and Illness in African Diasporic Women's Literature 
• FYS 192 America in 1925
• FYS 197 On Display:Museums, Collections, and Exhibition
• ARH 101: The Lives of Objects (limited to first- and second-year students)
• ENG 118 Consumer Culture
• ENG 118 Riding the Wave: The Women’s Movement 1968–79
• ENG 119 What's for Dinner?
• ENG 199 Methods of Literary Study

Interterm

All offered during interterm for 1 credit, S/U only
Mini Archives Research Courses

Graded S/U. Enrollment limited to 20. 1 credit

• ARX 105 Class Matters: Organizing for Economic Justice 
• ARX 106 Oral Histories and Archives
• ARX 107 Making Teaching and Learning Tangible: Understanding Children Through Archives 

Afro-American Studies

• AFR 202 The Black Archive
• AAS 243 Black Activists Autobiography
• AAS 237 20th-Century Afro-American Literature

American Studies

• AMS 201 Introduction to the Study of American Society and Culture
• AMS 203 Women, Sex and Gender in Early America
• AMS 210 The Democratization of Clothing in the United States, 1780-1930
• AMS 220 Curating American Memory
• AMS 221 New England Material Culture
• AMS 237 The Material and Visual Culture of Consumerism in America, 1750-1914
• AMS 302 New England Material Culture: Historic Deerfield
• AMS 341 America in 1925 (Richard Millington)

Art History

• ARH 101 Writing Art/Art Writing 
• ARH 267 Gender, Sexuality and the Built Environment
• ARH 291 Be My Valentine: Ephemera, Ephemerality and Affect
• ARH 300 Studies in American Art: Collecting American Art at Smith: The Seelye and Tryon Era

East Asian Studies

• EAS 200 Methods and Approaches to East Asian Studies: Korean Diaspora: Korea Inside & Outside
• EAS 350 Modern Girls and Marxist Boys: Consumerism, Colonialism, and Gender in Early 20th-century East Asia

Education and Child Study

• EDC 341 Child in Modern Society

English

• ENG 118 Consumer Culture
• ENG 120 Colloquia in Literature: Reading and Writing Short Poems
• ENG 199 Methods of Literary Study
• ENG 135 Introduction to Creative Nonfiction: Writing about Sports
• ENG 299 Green Victoria
• ENG 299 Crafting Creative Nonfiction
• ENG 312 Converts, Criminals and Fugitives: Print Culture of the African Diaspora, 1760–1860
• ENG 341 Poetry of War

Exercise & Sports Studies

• ESS 100 Playing the Game intro to Exercise and Sport
• ESS 550 Women in Sport

French

• FRN 360 The Year 1830
• FRN 254 France Before the Revolution

Government

• GOV 205 Urban Politics 
• GOV 311 Politics of Urban Social Movements

History

• HST 246 Memory and History
• HST 249 Early Modern European History
• HST 252 Women and Gender in Modern Europe, 1789-1918
• HST 253 Women and Gender in Contemporary Europe
• HST 266 Emancipation and the Afterlife of Slavery
• HST/SWG 270 Oral History and Lesbian Subjects
• HST 278 Decolonizing US Women's History
• HST 280 Women Writing Resistance
• HST 286 Recent Historiographic Debates in Gender and Sexuality
• HST 289 Aspects of Women's History
• HST 313 Problems in East Asian History
• HST 355 Smith College Relief Unit
• HST 371 African American Women in Slavery and Freedom
• HST 383 Domestic Worker Organization
• HST 390 Teaching History

Jewish Studies

• JUD 110j Elementary Yiddish: Language and Culture

Landscape Studies

• LSS105 Introduction to Landscape Studies
• LSS 200 Socialized Landscapes
• LSS 300 Rethinking Landscape

Presidential Seminars

• Cultural Literacy
• PRS 317 Fearing Haiti

Psychology

• PSY 374 Psychology of Political Activism
• PSY 375 Political Psychology of Gender

Program for the Study of Women and Gender

• SWG 105 Intro to LGBTQ Histories
• SWG 150 Introduction to the Study of Women and Gender
• SWG 200 The Queer 90s
• SWG 222 Gender, Law and Policy
• SWG 223 Sexual Harassment and Social Change
• SWG/HST 270 Oral History and Lesbian Subjects
• SWG 271 Reproductive Justice
• SWG 305 Queer Histories and Cultures
• SWG 314 Documenting Queer Lives
• SWG 312 Queer Resistances: Identities, Communities and Social Movements
• SWG 370 Women Against Empire

Theatre

• THE 154 "Reading" Dress: Archival Study of Clothing

Selection of Recommended Five College Courses

The following are Five College courses that are recommended for Archives Concentration credit. Consult current course catalogue to check availability.

Amherst College

American Studies

• AMS 274 Native American Literature: Decolonizing Intellectual Traditions

English

• ENG 62 Writing and Reform
• ENG 75 The Unprinted Page: Working with Manuscripts
• ENG 274 Native American Literature: Decolonizing Intellectual Traditions

History

• HIST 84 Seminar in U.S. Cultural History: Class and Culture Wars at the Turn of the 20th Century

Hampshire College

Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies

• HACU 235 "Odd" Women: Gender, Class and Victorian Culture

Social Science

• SS 121 Biography and History: Radicalism, Anti-Communism, and Internationalism in the 1950s
• SS 235 Queer Publics

Mount Holyoke College

Gender Studies

• GNDST 333f U.S. Gender History Research Seminar

University of Massachusetts Amherst

Art

• ART 297 Monuments and Memorials

History

• HST 397 Introduction to Public History
• HST 497 Mining the Museum: Adventures in the Theory and Practice of Museum Work
• HST 397 Public History Workshop
• HST 397 Special Topics: History of Reproductive Rights in the U.S.
• HST 791 Seminar in U.S. Women's and Gender History

Capstone Seminar

In the capstone seminar for the Archives Concentration, ARX 340 Taking the Archives Public, students create online exhibits of archival materials from the Sophia Smith Collection and College Archives.

2020 Digital Exhibits

• Ellen Brancart, Women on the Water
• Kiana Clark, Lesbian Identity in Sports and Athletics
• Ann Hewitt (MHC), The Scrapbook of Florence Tyzzer, Mt. Holyoke Class of 1908
• M. Passy, Queer Quarantine Kitchen
• Lily Schwartz, Covid-19: A Digital Art Archive 

To access the following exhibits, you must first log in to sophia.smith.edu. Access is limited to Smith email addresses only.

• Veronica Douglas, UMass Works Because We Do: The Graduate Employment Organization 1990-2020
• Sky Karp, Trans Faculty and Staff at Smith: An Oral History Project

Sampling of Past Online Exhibits

• Sydney Reyes Beattie, Dyke TV Guide
• Jessica Flohr, Cycling Skirts, Woolen Shirts: Gender and Femininity in Early 20th Century Sports
• Linda Moynahan, Build a Campfire, Build a Nation: American Identity, Gender, and Native Imagery in Girls' Summer Camps
• Daisy Paez, The Story of Us: LASO at Smith College
• Allison Smith, The Apron, A Symbol of Domesticity & Class Status in the 19th Century 
• Julia Smith, Plurality of Plaths: Correspondence between Sylvia Plath and her therapist, Ruth Beuscher, 1960-1963
• Becca Tibbitts, Haunted Looking