As Librarian for Academic Programs in Special Collections, I lead and coordinate the growing instruction program and other teaching and learning initiatives centered around Princeton University Library’s Special Collections with a focus on critical inquiry and active learning for both undergraduate and graduate classes. Special Collections offers multiple classroom and virtual instructional services in support of the University's mission to advance learning through scholarship, research, and teaching. Whether in a one-time class session or a term-long course held in Special Collections, the Library welcomes and encourages the use of the collections to enhance learning experiences. Please contact me if you would like to schedule a session to discuss course options. If you are familiar with the teaching program in Special Collections, see the Schedule a Class Visit form to book a session.
Teach with Collections
Teach with Collections at Princeton
A collaborative project between the Princeton University Art Museum, the Library, and the McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning.
Course Design
HIS 431/AMS 432: Archiving the American West. A semester course developed around PUL's Western Americana Collection in collaboration with Professor Martha A. Sandweiss (History) and PhD candidate Brian Wright (History). Spring Term 2021. Online Description. Course exhibition.
Outreach & Media
Virtual teaching with Special Collections: ‘Archiving the American West’
Archival materials tell the stories of people from the past — their experiences, struggles and heartache. But who determines the contents of an archive? How do a library’s holdings influence historians? Whose stories get told and whose do not?
Language to Be Looked At: Virtual Teaching with Special Collections
Tearing and flinging vibrant shreds of paper into the air, 13 students in 13 different locations across the United States and Canada orchestrated a visual and physical act that connected one another virtually through a grid of Zoom screens.
Reading Toni Morrison: Virtual Teaching with Special Collections
What is it like to pore over — and even touch — the handwriting of a world-renowned author on the lined notepaper on which she drafted her famous novels? What do you learn about the writing process from reading an author’s handwritten pen and pencil scribbles as she made changes to early drafts of work on typewritten pages? And what happens when access to those literary pages of gold is threatened by the pandemic?
America Then and Now: Teaching with Special Collections
This fall semester, Princeton undergraduates in the team-taught course “America Then and Now” explored the shaping of America through a range of experiences in and outside the classroom. In mid-November, the nearly 100 students in the course visited Princeton University Library’s (PUL) Special Collections to gain hands-on experience in archival research.