The Counternarratives Digital Archive (CDA) is a project developed as a teaching tool by Dr. Andrew Maginn at Sewanee: The University of the South. The foundation for this site was created by students within Dr. Maginn’s HIST 231A: African American History to 1865 course. After learning the principles and best practices for making a digital exhibit, the class created a Data Dictionary for future students, which included resource templates for people and sources. In addition, the students engage with local and regional archives, historical newspapers, as well as medical and legal records.

 

This project is being expanded by the students in Dr. Maginn's HIST 232A: African American History since 1865 course. The students within this course will highlight lesser-known Black historical actors that add to our understanding of the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first-century African American experience. This will be accomplished by examining multiple primary and secondary sources held at the Sewanee: The University of the South. 

 

The plan is for this project to continue within select courses and grow with the support of internal and external funding and collaborators.