Throughout its history, Louisville’s collectors, musicians and enslaved laborers have shaped the city’s economy, culture and natural environment. These papers by graduate and undergraduate students in the University of Louisville’s History Department will highlight the pivotal but often overlooked contributions Black labor (enslaved and free) has made to Kentucky’s famous bourbon industry; how the work of a nineteenth-century ornithologist continues to inform bird conservation efforts today; the impact of a local radio station, its DJs, and the Rhythm and Blues musicians they inspired in the 1960s and 1970s; and the intriguing and sometimes controversial cover art in a Louisville business owner’s massive collection of paperback books from the 1930s-1970s. Together, the panel will give insight into the unique contributions individuals have made to Louisville, and their continuing legacies in the city and beyond.

Presentations by current and former graduate and undergraduate students as well as members of the local community groups with whom the students collaborated and/or are collaborating.

Invited Panelists from local community groups:
Stewart Ferrell, South Louisville Project Committee
David Fitzgerald, South Louisville Project Committee
Christine Marshall, South Louisville Project Committee
Lynn McCrary, Chickasaw Book Project Committee
Donovan Taylor, Chickasaw Book Project Committee, The Chickasaw Neighborhood Heritage Hike

The papers in this panel apply interdisciplinary approaches, including assessments of material and textual sources, to examine conflicting meanings, uses and interpretations of ancient, medieval and modern communal spaces. Why were Romans so fascinated by the female gladiators who dared to subvert societal expectations and fight like men in public arenas? Why were women and female children buried outside a Byzantine church more than men and boys? Why did a medieval community in the eastern Mediterranean decide to place two women in the same grave and what can this tell us about local experiences and perspectives of gender and cemeteries? How can cross-disciplinary collaboration combat the destruction recent terrorist acts have caused to cultural heritage sites in order to protect the rich ancient and medieval history of the Middle East? These case studies of shared spaces reveal the complexity of societal gender, class and cultural norms. By considering the spaces through multiple disciplinary and evidentiary lenses, the presenters offer new insights and tools for understanding and preserving the ancient and medieval past.

University of Louisville faculty will share their experiences using digital tools and assignments to increase student engagement and support learning outcomes. This workshop session will include sample lesson plans for group and individual digital projects—such as movies and museums—and a virtual reality demo. Participants will have the opportunity to use VR headsets to visit an ancient site and ask one of UofL’s instructional technology specialists how their institutions might support these types of projects.

The Iberian Atlantic World encompasses diverse environs, peoples, cultures, religions, and societies scarred by the Atlantic slave trade and connected by a shared experience of conquest and colonization. This panel travels both spatially and temporally through this variegated world, from Spain’s earliest colonial projects in the Atlantic islands and the management of trade relationships in late colonial Florida to an interrogation of the development of Afro-Brazilian culture on the margins in the nineteenth century. Through discussions of diverging views and experiences of slavery, commerce, and economic and imperial policies, this panel re-centers marginalized histories of people and places, offering compelling and complementary narratives essential to understanding the complexity of the Atlantic World.