Tufts Anthropology : Academics

Immigrant City: Then and Now: An Exhibition at the Somerville Museum
Urban Borderlands ANT 183, Fall 2007
Jennifer Burtner, Department of Anthropology, Tufts University
Now through March 2008

Community and learning resources created in Urban Borderlands and now available to the public: The exhibition “Immigrant City: Then and Now” (The Somerville Museum, now extended until the end of February 2008) presents narratives of Somerville immigrants in their own words through interviews, photographs, original artwork, maps, historical prints and engravings. The show was presented to the community through numerous public events and educational forums and was open to the public for three months (Oct-Dec 2007). The product of years of interdisciplinary research and partnerships between Tufts, local nongovernmental organizations and Massachusetts public schools, Tufts faculty worked with undergraduates to make sure that the stories and materials collected were not forgotten once the show was de-installed. The result was a five module course curriculum designed for Greater Boston public school teachers to help them integrate local history and knowledge into the broader U.S. context and existing curriculum frameworks (Social Science/ Humanities, History, Political Science). Each module focuses on immigration-related themes: Homeland and the Journey; Education and Learning English; Making a Living; Culture and Identity; Then & Now – Dreams and Reflections. The companion resource CD Rom contains: a full listing of quotes from interviews conducted with first, second and third generation immigrants; photographs taken by Somerville school children and from the family archives of interviewees; Powerpoint presentations and background papers for instructors on each theme; module specific activities for small and large groups; homework assignments and a filmography.

For more information on the show, public events and community partnership work please visit:

About the course, Urban Borderlands

This course integrates academic and experiential learning in an ongoing multi-year community-based research project documenting the history of Somerville and Cambridge’s immigrant communities. Because there are few if any written sources on the history of these communities, students participating in Urban Borderlands during previous years have focused their semester long work on designing and conducting in-depth interviews with community leaders and residents active within these communities’ formal and informal institutions. In this way, students were able to familiarize themselves with the people and organizations which are gradually reconfiguring the urban landscapes of Greater Boston. For a listing of these final research reports visit the Somerville/Cambridge Latino Community History Project at http://dca.tufts.edu/features/urban

This semester Urban Borderlands entered a new phase, in which students worked as organizers and support staff interns to two Somerville organizations (The Welcome Project, the Somerville Museum) as their Directors, staff and community partners worked to “repatriate” oral history research through the design and installation of the exhibition “Immigrant City: Then and Now” (originally on exhibit at the Somerville Museum October, November & December of 2007, now extended through the end of February 2008). During the first two weeks of class students were assigned to one of three work teams with which they worked throughout the semester. Each team was responsible for 1) the organization and implementation of one public event aimed at promoting the exhibition to a specific target group within the broader community, and 2) the development of one institutional capacity building project for The Welcome Project which strengthened a particular programmatic element of the organization, helping it to fulfill its mission and reach its future programmatic goals.

For more information, see http://somervillemuseum.org/ and http://www.welcomeproject.org/