伊娃·朗史密斯的口述历史

运动员，活动家，还有富布赖特学者 21岁的伊娃·朗-史密斯讨论了她对历史，师徒关系大学档案保管员弗雷德·伯威尔，86年，并在贝洛伊特的档案中找到了黑人欢乐的例子.

I had the privilege of interviewing Eva after years of working with her as a student worker in the 大学档案馆和, 最近, collaborating with her on our senior 历史 capstones 和 joint Symposium, 哪个集中在历史上 黑人学生向学校行政部门提出要求. Our conversations are always rife with inside jokes 和 hearty laughter — 和 this interview was no different. 警告你自己.

梅格Kulikowski: 伊娃，你是怎么决定主修历史的?

伊娃Laun-Smith: 其实我想主修双学位教育和历史因为我想成为一名历史老师. 教育并没有真正发挥作用. 我想我在历史上找到了归宿. There’s a lot more perspectives that I think could be found through 历史. 也, being a 历史 major makes it easier to argue with people, 你知道, 这可能是最重要的.

MK: [Laughs] What about starting to work in the 大学档案馆?

船: I did a special project the summer going into my sophomore year, thanks to Professor Emeritus Beatrice McKenzie of the 历史 department, who hooked me up with it because I was staying in the area. I was working through the Beloit Historical Society to find information on African Americans in Beloit from 1840 to the 1900s. 我去了威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校的档案馆, 威斯康星州立图书馆, the Wisconsin Black Historical Society 和 Museum in Milwaukee, 在伯洛伊特学院也学过一点. 我在大学里做了很多人口普查工作名誉档案保管员弗雷德·伯威尔，86年在麦肯齐教授的帮助下. 我以前从未做过研究.

2019年春天，我选择了第一个历史收获课和你还有其他几个人一起. 我们做了研究，口述历史，还有做了一个网站 on African Americans in the Beloit area who came up from the Great Migration. I don’t even remember any initial conversation I had with Fred. I think it just came up because he knew I was from the Beloit area 和 he needed a summer worker. I think I declared as a 历史 major already at that point.

I worked with Fred over the summer, 和 it was probably one of the best things I’d done [at Beloit]. 我真的很享受和弗雷德一起工作的时光. I always appreciated that he tailored what you did in the archives to your interests. 从一开始, he already knew that I’d done [research about] African Americans in Beloit, 所以我做了很多口述历史的转录. 非常有趣. And then I continued working there over the semester of my junior year until now.

MK: What are some of the other projects that you’ve done related to 历史和 the archives?

船: 190年的历史课, I wrote my 10-page paper on counterculture 在伯洛伊特学院, 特别是那些地下报纸. 在拿下学院的第一名之后历史上的收获 class, 在接下来的一个学期里，我担任了这个班的助教, 把(范围)扩大到欧洲移民, Latinx移民.

I’ve done papers for Professor Kate Johnston looking at medicine within enslaved communities. 我上的是她的顶点课程，1619年:奴隶制的遗产. 我们做了一个文献综述做了一个网站. 不是我自吹自擂，但这个网站是我的主意. 我觉得结果还不错. I did that project on the commodification of Black bodies 和 college athletics, 简单地看了一下职业运动员.

我还参与策划了一个洛根博物馆展览上跨大西洋奴隶贸易. We came up with the idea of representing enslaved people who were transported during the slave trade as grains of rice in a clear Plexiglass container. We also decided to put up smaller models with the populations of Beloit 和 then 十大菠菜台子 for size comparison. We gave a virtual presentation for the project to the Black Business Resource Group at American Family Insurance.

MK: What have you learned from your time in the 历史 department 和 working in the archives?

船: I think the big takeaway is that 历史 is something to be shared. I take every chance I can to tell people about the archives, 告诉他们有可利用的资源, 和 share the 历史 that I know of the college to other people.

还有一件事. 它并没有完全开花结果, but I did do research on Black students at the college from the earlier periods, which is what I based some of my Evenings with Eva off of.

MK: 是的，与伊娃共度的夜晚. 多跟我说说.

船: 伟大的segue! 我在和《十大菠菜台子》杂志聊天 & 图书馆员凯利·莱希. I had said that if I was Fred — if I were to be 十大菠菜台子’s archivist — I would use a similar moniker [to Fridays with Fred] for getting the 历史 out there, 我说晚上和伊娃在一起. So I was working here over winter break, 和 it was Black History Month. So I’m like, “Cool, we can do something for Black History Month.”

For Evenings with Eva, I ended up doing a 历史 that had already been covered by Fred on 乔治Hilliard的36, [a Black student] whose photo was removed from an admissions booklet. 我介绍了密西西比辅导中心 [a student-led initiative from the Beloit Plan era], 和 then also 雅各P. 詹姆斯, who attended Beloit’s preparatory school in the 1880s 和 was from the Dominican Republic.

我并不想在民权方面做太多的研究, even though the Tutoring Center was a direct result of Civil Rights activism at the college 和 of the Black Power Movement. 雅各布·P. 詹姆斯，想到一个非美国的黑人学生.S. ending up at this small liberal arts college in Wisconsin was so interesting that I thought other people would be interested in it as well. I just wanted to cover happier things — interesting things about our Black students.

One thing I made sure happened was to get a Black History Night in the archives during Black History Month for BSU. 弗雷德总是这么做. He gave really good presentations — brought out materials for people to look at.

MK: 你现在怎么形容你和弗雷德的关系? 你会称他为朋友吗? 一位导师?

船: 两者我都会考虑. 我不知道我是否要去档案馆, 但在我为他工作的那段时间里, 我绝对可以把自己看作一个档案保管员. Maybe I will go for a master’s in library science with a focus in archives. 我想我可能想走教学路线. In the archives, you’re still teaching people, so it’s not really that different. 我很尊敬弗雷德. 他真是个鼓舞人心的人. 我很感激我们的每一次谈话. He’s probably one of my biggest influences at the college. The reason why I love 历史和十大菠菜台子’s Black 历史 [in particular] is definitely because of him. 我爱你，弗雷德!

Eva 和 Meg graduated during separate ceremonies but on the same day in May 2021. Eva 和 Meg graduated during separate ceremonies but on the same day in May 2021.