The Eliot Indian Bible Project

This project is the work of the students in History 370 (Colonial American History) in Spring 2023. Supported by librarians, digital humanities experts, and each other, the students embarked on collaborative research on a single object, a Bible published in colonial Massachusetts in 1663. This amazing object resides today in the collections of the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at UIUC. Over the course of a semester-long “object research lab” on the Bible, the students explored different themes and contexts that help appreciate its significance. They looked at the Bible, and they looked through the Bible. They showed remarkable creativity and insight, and here below is an exhibit that represents the result of their labor.

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Latina/os in the City

Taught by Dr. Yuridia Ramirez during the Spring 2019 semester, Latina/os and the City centered the experiences of Latinx peoples in US sites as the driving narrative of modern US history. Though the political climate of the early 21st century led to increased media attention on the presence of Latinxs and the mass migration of peoples from Latin America, students traced how Latinxs actually have been critical actors in the transformation of US spaces even before “the border crossed us.” The analytics of race, place, and power drove this course as the voices of Latinxs were placed front and center each week.

Students conducted small research projects based on the course theme throughout the semester, culminating in a final research paper which is highlighted in each student's Digication page. In this way, we contributed to re-telling US history and Latina/o Studies through unexamined or little understood historical narratives of everyday Latina/os in the Midwest.

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Chicanx History Textbook: A digital textbook by undergraduates at the University of Illinois

Though we know that Mexican American and Chicano history is US history, most K-12 US history textbooks – and even some college textbooks – only include a few pages or paragraphs on Mexican American history. This final class assignment provided students the opportunity to create a publicly accessible, digital textbook, throughout the course of the semester. Our dear, brilliant students were the authors of this important and necessary work. Each student chose one research subject – a person, political organization or group, social movement, place, event, etc. – and created an infographic on that subject. Please enjoy, and spread the world about our project!

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