Open Pedagogy as Open Student Projects
“And Still We Rise”: Open Pedagogy and Black History at a Rural Comprehensive State College
Joshua F. Beatty; Timothy C. Hartnett; Debra Kimok; and John McMahon
Authors
- Joshua F. Beatty, SUNY Plattsburgh
- Timothy C. Hartnett, SUNY Plattsburgh
- Debra Kimok, SUNY Plattsburgh
- John McMahon, SUNY Plattsburgh
Project Overview
Institution: SUNY Plattsburgh
Institution Type: public, liberal arts, undergraduate, postgraduate
Project Discipline: Political Science
Project Outcome: student-created library exhibit (physical and virtual)
Tools Used: Omeka, LibGuides
Resources Included in Chapter:
- Course Materials
- Virtual Exhibit Website
- Images
- Videos
2020 Preface
On April 9, 2020, between our final edits and publication, one of the co-authors, Tim Hartnett, passed away. Our chapter describes just what Tim meant to the And Still We Rise project, but cannot articulate his importance as colleague and friend. Tim was a musician and raconteur as well as a librarian, and brought the energy of the practiced performer to the academy’s milieu of introverts. For And Still We Rise, he drew the co-authors together; he had recruited Joshua to his position in the library, promoted Debra’s work in Special Collections and the College Archives, welcomed John at a new faculty reception, and early on saw the possibilities that could arise from John’s course, Debra’s archival holdings, and Joshua’s digital scholarship advocacy. Tim himself added a deep knowledge and lifelong commitment to Plattsburgh, exemplified by his labor chronicling the history of musicians and other performers who visited the college. We are grateful that Tim’s estate recognizes the importance of his work and that they are working with the authors to preserve and curate it for future generations.
A fuller appreciation of Tim’s life can be read in “A Meaningful Life,” from the Press-Republican newspaper.
—Joshua, Debra, & John
Introducing And Still We Rise
In Spring 2019, students at The State University of New York College at Plattsburgh (SUNY Plattsburgh) researched, designed, and built And Still We Rise: Celebrating Plattsburgh’s (Re)Discovery of Iconic Black Visitors (ASWR), an exhibit in the Feinberg Library on prominent Black political and cultural figures who had visited the college since the 1960s. The thirteen students in African-American Political Thought (Political Science 371), taught by Dr. John McMahon, researched in the college’s archives and secondary sources to curate photos, text and multimedia for physical and virtual exhibits.[1]
We wish to thank the students in the course, for without their ideas, work, and commitment, neither ASWR nor this book chapter would be possible: Marie Alcis, Jacob Baird, Kyla Church, Juntaro Hirose, Domenica Lacouture, Jenna Long, James McGarrity, Yukari Namihira, Keianna Noble, Nouran Noureldin, Alyssa Scott, Josh Shaw, and Kentaro Wada. The class’ work can be read on the digital version of ASWR available at