NCCU Projects
More Than Just a Game: The NCCU vs. NC A&T Football Rivalry
More than just a game tells the remarkable story of the 100-year-old football rivalry between North Carolina Central University (NCCU) in Durham, NC, and North Carolina A&T State University (NC A&T) in Greensboro, NC. The fall meeting between the two schools is one of the biggest rivalries in HBCU (Historically Black College and University) sports. Only fifty miles apart from each other, NCC and A&T recruit many of the same students and student athletes. In fact, many families have alumni from both schools. This close familiarity fuels the rivalry and its emotional appeal. At the heart of the rivalry is the larger statement the game makes about which school is better and by extension which body of students, faculty, and administrators are better. Indeed, the rivalry extends well beyond the sidelines of the football field itself, deep into the households, and the hearts, of alumni and fans of both schools. Installed at the Museum of Durham History and the Greensboro History Museum, the story is told from the perspective of each institution. Rare photos and video interviews with coaches and players give exhibit visitors a front row seat to this annual clash of titans.
Expanding the Digital Library on American Slavery
Collaborative, community-engaged research is an invaluable tool for healing and transformation in the face of traumatic histories like that of slavery in the American South. Extractive data-collection projects based at distant institutions often leave community stakeholders feeling alienated and peripheral, and can serve to deepen rifts between scholars and the communities they purport to serve. Local projects, based at institutions that have existing relationships with the broader community, have the potential to empower communities by engaging diverse stakeholders as partners in the generation and stewardship of historical knowledge. Leveraging the infrastructure and expertise of the Digital Library on American Slavery (DLAS), based at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, the goal of this project is to expand ongoing digital archival research to three additional public universities in North Carolina through a set of interrelated research projects that engage and empower local communities while fostering collaboration among scholars at diverse stages of their professional development. As scholars at these three institutions engage in local research projects, regular convenings will present opportunities for collaboration around the themes of theory and praxis in community-engaged humanistic scholarship.
Durham Black Burial Ground Collaboratory
