by Alison Fraser
Instruction in Special Collections has never been more in demand or innovative, and many Special Collections instructors and disciplinary faculty are looking for greater student engagement with rare and archival materials. Student-curated exhibitions are an important outgrowth of this current trend, as they allow students to expand their understanding of a subject area and develop a deeper understanding of Special Collections and primary source literacy. While such instruction opportunities are high-impact, facilitating a student-curated exhibition requires a different approach from the more typical one-shot sessions in collaborating with disciplinary faculty. This case study joins the small body of scholarship on student-curated exhibitions by outlining a semester-long embedded instruction in the graduate-level English literature course “Black Writers and the Archive” that culminated with a student-curated exhibition. By discussing strategies as well as successes and challenges of working with graduate student exhibit curators, this case study aims to support other special collections librarians facilitating student-led exhibits.
Access: Case #31: Graduate Student-Curated Exhibits: A Study