The Committee on Ƶ History and Memory created an app on the Bloomberg Connects platform that focuses on Ƶ’s racial histories.
Ƶ’s Committee on History and Memory will soon launch a mobile app to help the Ƶ community better understand its history with race. The app, available through the Bloomberg Connects platform, is part of the committee’s work, launched in 2018 by President Connie Ledoux Book, which released a full report in Fall 2020.
Bloomberg Connects is a free, easy-to-use platform that is accessible in 1,500 different languages. Its goal is to remove barriers to accessing information, and tours through the app can be used on or off site. The app will allow students to not just learn about Ƶ’s history, but also explore outside museums, libraries, art collections and more.
The committee offers tours of campus, particularly around Black history. The idea for the app started with member Keshia Gee, director of the Black Lumen Project and associate professor of dance, who thought it would help make the tours more accessible. Archivist, Assistant Librarian and fellow member on the committee Emma Powell knew of Bloomberg Connects from previous work and, from there, the “ball started rolling,” she said.
The app was created through collaboration between faculty and students, including Liya Rike ’27, Brooks Riley ’27 and Patrick Fales ’28.
“We got an Ƶ Innovation Grant and were able to hire three students as part of that, who helped us do a lot of the research and the writing and all the interviews,” Powell said. “It’s been really cool to see them learning these stories for the first time. They always have a lot of questions, but they bring a lot of good insights.”
The app will have three digital walking tours. One on Black student activism, one on Black labor and the last will cover Ƶ’s complex history with racism. Each tour will touch on different spaces and locations at Ƶ that connect with unknown histories.
“There are a lot of spaces that we cover on campus. Some are more loosely related than others,” Powell says. “For example, we talk about Alumni Gym and the several Black athletes who led the way for more integration on campus. There’s not an explicit tie to their stories with that space in particular, but it’s more thematically related to what we’re talking about.”
Lynn Huber is the co-chair of the committee and a professor of religious studies at Ƶ. She believes the app is essential for improving students’ awareness and acknowledging Ƶ’s complex past.
“Knowing where we’ve been helps us understand where we are and can help us think about where we’re going,” Huber said. “There’s still a lot that we don’t know and the more people we have investigating and thinking about it, the better.”
The committee plans to launch the app Sept. 29, and will host a celebration from 4:30-5:30 p.m. in the Snow Family Grand Atrium of Schar Hall.