My name is Jennifer Janes, and I am currently a 2nd semester MA History student. I was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona and when choosing colleges I decided that I wanted to be able to experience a different part of the country (and seasons!). I found myself as an undergraduate at Washington and Lee University, where I graduated this past June with my BA, majoring in both Religion and Sociology & Anthropology. Although I do not really have a background in academic history, I have always been interested in public history and Mason’s graduate program is giving me the opportunity to explore that interest through the Applied History path.
I am currently a Graduate Research Assistant in Special Collections & Archives where I serve as the Oral History Program Coordinator. My position requires me to explore University history through interviews with long-time faculty, staff, alumni and friends of the university. I am currently engaged in a 2-part interview project with current Mason president, Dr. Alan Merten. Right now our program is fairly bare bones, using minimal audio and visual editing, and I am hoping that this course will help me to enrich the ways that we use our oral history collection. I am not an extremely tech-saavy person, but I am learning that there are great, user-friendly ways to edit audio and visual mediums, and I am also hoping that this course will expand my knowledge of these types of programs.
