AASLH has been working with four interns this summer from across the country and around the world in our Professional Development and Marketing departments and our Public History Research Lab.
Ali Aoun hails from Michigan and is currently a second-year student in New York University’s Social and Cultural Analysis Master’s Program, Ali’s research has revolved around cultural production and how it informs public knowledge. As a public humanities student, he is interested in the dynamics between a community’s cultural preservation and how public history organizations can support local communities. “As an Summer Urban Public Humanities Fellow at AASLH, I am focusing on learning more about the public history sector and how it intersects with public humanities and local communities. As COVID-19 has shown us, access to public resources and education go hand-in-hand with humanitarian issues. Drafting research briefs on the most pressing issues in the public history sector underscores the untapped value of museums and history organizations in providing resources to a community during a crisis, as well as allowing space for younger generations to interpret public history moving forward. It is a precarious time for public organizations, and seeing this sector evolve over the past year has been inspiring and necessary.”
Alondra J. Morillon is currently a graduate student at Texas State University and a native of Houston. Alondra has been working with our Professional Development staff to learn about facilitating virtual events and expanding outreach to graduate students. Most recently, she created an interactive virtual webinar with the help of the Professional Development team as well as our Emerging History Professionals Affinity Community that gave helpful tips and advice for first-time conference presenters.
Aria Hardison is currently a senior Graphic Design student at Middle Tennessee State University. In addition to Graphic Design, Aria also minored in Photography and plans to use both areas of study in an advertising agency or music industry role. Working closely with the Senior Manager, Marketing & Membership, Aria has been sharpening her skills designing promotional materials, social media graphics, and publications.
Gavin Beinart-Smollan, a native of New Zealand, is a PhD candidate at New York University, where he is writing a dissertation about the global family connections of Lithuanian Jews after the two world wars. He is also a student in NYU’s public history program, and is involved in a number of public history projects. Gavin served as the researcher and writer for an online course about the history of Jewish food for the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, and is also creating a digital archive of historic Jewish community cookbooks. During his fellowship at AASLH this summer, he has been working with the Public History Research Lab to design a new program that will train a cadre of passionate community historians at museums and archives across the country.
