Maria Modugno leads visitors to the museum through her oral history project exhibit
Marisa Modugno ’23 is one of 26 student fellows conducting research with a community-based organization in upstate New York this summer as a part of the Upstate Institute Summer Field School.
The Chenango County Historical Society (CCHS) is dedicated to leading and supporting the advancement of research, education, and enjoyment of Chenango County history. CCHS is located in Norwich, N.Y., about 25 miles south of Colgate University. CCHS serves the people of Chenango County as well as neighboring counties and visitors to the area. They serve their audience by creating exhibits, hosting events, and publishing articles related to the history of Chenango County. CCHS serves a very rural community in central New York. They are dedicated to facilitating and promoting the access and enjoyment of the history of Chenango County.
This summer, as a Field School Fellow working with CCHS, I managed the pilot launch of an oral history project called Chenango Stories. Chenango Stories collects and organizes audio stories and related photographs from Chenango County community members. This first phase of the project focuses on collecting stories celebrating the 175th anniversary of the Chenango County Fair. I designed a logo, created a website, recruited storytellers, and recorded stories. I collaborated with another nonprofit, OurStoryBridge, an organization that helps people at cultural institutions set up and manage oral history projects. The project launched alongside an exhibit about the fair on Aug. 5, 2022.
This project fits CCHS’s mission, as it is all about making history accessible. Stories are perhaps the most traditional mode of recording history. By recording and digitizing oral histories, this project seeks to combine tradition with the modern age. Many museum exhibits are made up of physical artifacts and descriptive text; by also displaying audio stories, the exhibit is more widely accessible to museum visitors. Moreover, the goal of this project is to capture the everyday lives of people in the Chenango County community, therefore contributing to a history museum exhibit is also more accessible.
I gained an appreciation for the essential function that history museums serve as well as the challenges of representing history. One example of a challenge that I encountered with this project was whether or not to include language in the oral histories that was used historically but is now considered offensive. This is very closely related to my studies as a peace and conflict studies major; I recently completed a research thesis about how genocide memorials and museums represent extremely difficult and sensitive parts of history and the different factors that influence how they craft narratives. Moreover, as I am interested in working in the nonprofit sector, I was excited to learn even more about how nonprofits function — especially about board development.
This is my third and final summer as an Upstate Institute Field School Fellow and my second summer working with the Chenango County Historical Society. I’ve learned a lot during my time working with the Upstate Institute and CCHS. This summer, I gained many skills, including website editing, marketing, and public communications. I was eager to be a Field School Fellow this summer, as I truly believe in the importance of nonprofit work and community-based research and its philosophy of collaboration, forwarding social change, and democratizing knowledge.