Digital History Internship Projects

I, Ryan Mertz, am developing a digital history project around 2020 events and how they have affected and impacted SUNY New Paltz students. I chose to use interviews as my medium. I intend on conducting interviews with members of the New Paltz community to get their perspective on all of the ways that COVID-19 has affected their lives and changed their plans for the future.

The focus of the interview questions will revolve around four topics: the COVID-19 pandemic, racial inequality, wildfires in California, and the upcoming U.S. presidential election. Recent events this past year have led many young people on the verge of graduation to feel insecure about their futures; the cascade of compounding issues has inspired feelings of helplessness and fatigue for those about to enter an already unstable workforce. This project is meant to shed light on some of these feelings and create a space for those perspectives to be shared, related to and reflected upon.

Internship supervised by Research & Education Librarians Adrianna Martinez and Chrissy O'Grady.

Only a third of the way into my study abroad program in Prague, my program, like most international programs, sent us home before travel restrictions could worsen. I knew then that the spreading coronavirus would not be going away anytime soon. We were forced to hunker down, abandon the ways we had always done things, and rely on technology to such an extent never seen before. Simply being human was dangerous; no get-togethers, no dates or movie nights or basketball games. There was only home, whatever that looked like, at first for a month, and then the next month, and now I don’t even know if we’re still technically quarantining?

Then, on May 25th in Minneapolis, George Floyd was killed while in police custody. The blinders were opened, and the realization was clear: this keeps happening. Protesters took to the streets in waves that resembled the historic marches of the 1960s. All across the US, from places that never once questioned their subtle affinity for racism to the largest cities in the country, Black Lives Matter protesters set forth the charge and made their demand: prejudiced murder, and a total restructuring of the national law enforcement system. A bold order, but after so many lives lost over the years because of unchecked racism, how could anything less be demanded? Though mostly peaceful, in some cities, footage of citizens vandalizing storefronts headlined the news while rival protester factions faced off in bloody skirmishes. When a genuine mending was needed, instead the aisle only widened. 

In the midst of both the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter Movement, we’ve been cruelly reminded of the toll our abusive existence has taken on the Earth. California burns, and has been for two consecutive months now. In the woes of climate degradation that are taking place on our front doorstep, there are those who still refuse to accept the harm we continue to inflict upon our planet. With the point of no return steadily approaching, we find ourselves in a moment of immense responsibility.

All of it during an election year. With so many compounding issues, it feels as if the stars are aligned, and they’re pointing towards November 3rd. As a young person able for the first time to vote in a presidential election, I feel the stakes weighing on my shoulders. But instead of carrying them forward, they’ve been chained to a wall behind me. It is my unfortunate hope that others my age may feel the same way; finally on the cusp of joining the world, no longer as a student but a contributor to the ebb and flow of things, and the foundation collapses just as we take our first steps. We stopped looking forward to tomorrow, instead worrying it would be as bad as yesterday. 

The aim of this digital archive is based on this unfortunate hope: although it’s tragic we’ve found ourselves at such a vulnerable crossroads, I hope that by collectively relating to each other’s experiences over the past year we can better our understanding of the struggles ahead.