The Black at Bryn Mawr project aims to document and share the experiences of Black students, faculty, and staff at Bryn Mawr College. It has included conducting walking tours of campus, leading class discussions, and publishing stories. Over 250 people have participated in the tours to date. The project will continue expanding its research through an oral history pilot, collaborating with other groups, and supporting new researchers exploring Bryn Mawr's history related to race. An upcoming workshop will help current students reflect on issues of identity and power dynamics related to race on campus. The project organizers hope to continue deepening understanding of how examining history can promote social justice.

1. Black at Bryn Mawr:
What’s Next?
Monica L. Mercado
Postdoctoral Fellow and Director,
The Albert M. Greenfield Digital Center for the
History of Women’s Education at Bryn Mawr College
blackatbrynmawr.blogs.brynmawr.edu | #BlackatBrynMawr
September 30, 2015

2. Black at Bryn Mawr was designed to learn about the experiences of Black students, staff, and faculty at
Bryn Mawr and to analyze the ways in which the College has chosen to record, remember, and represent
racism in its history... The purpose of the project is to build institutional memory of the College’s
engagement with racism so that future generations of students can hold themselves and the College
community to higher standards of awareness and accountability to racial power dynamics both inside and
outside the classroom.
-- Emma Kioko ’15 and Grace Pusey ’15 (Spring 2015)

3. Black at Bryn Mawr: The Walking Tour

4. Black at Bryn Mawr as Public-Facing History
I have realized the incredible power and
importance of asking questions. Questions
made the difference between some of our
good tours and some of our great tours...
Some of the best moments on the tours for
me were times when a student or a staff
member would ask a question and another
community member on the tour would answer.
The interactions between community
members on the tour would generally create a
much more relaxed and engaged atmosphere,
which allowed the participants on the tour to
reflect even more on the spaces and
information we presented. I also think that
questions pushed our research even further.
-- Emma Kioko ‘15

5. Black at Bryn Mawr: In the Classroom

6. Black at Bryn Mawr: June - October 2015
15 Public tours conducted
6 Bryn Mawr class sessions led
5 Conference/public presentations
Including BMC Community Day of
Learning (March 2015), Untold
Histories conference at Rutgers-
Camden (April 2015), and
Women’s History in the Digital
World at Bryn Mawr (May 2015)
Upcoming public tours:
• Alumnae Volunteer Summit / Oct. 3
• Family Weekend / Oct. 23
More than 250 community members and
neighbors have taken the tour to date.

7. Dedication of the Enid Cook ‘31 Center, August 2015
I am touched that Enid Cook's story has
moved others as deeply as it moved me. I
never imagined that six months after I
published her story to the Black at Bryn
Mawr blog I would be looking up at Enid
Cook's name on a campus building, the first
building on Bryn Mawr's campus to be named
after a woman of color. Her story is now a
permanent part of Bryn Mawr's landscape.
For women of color, Enid Cook's story
resonates and emboldens; for white women
like me, her story reminds us that we must be
vigilant in confronting ignorance and injustice.
-- Grace Pusey ‘15

8. What’s Next?
Fall Break Workshop: October 16-17, 2015
Black at Bryn Mawr project co-founder Grace
Pusey '15 will lead an intensive two-day
reading, writing, and discussion-based
workshop with current undergraduate students
organized around the following goals:
- to reflect on the role that race plays in
students' own and others' identities and
experiences;
- to learn to recognize how racial power
dynamics impact themselves and others on
campus;
- to explore concepts of power, privilege, and
oppression related to race;
- to strengthen competencies in reading,
writing, and discussing critical theory; and,
- to deepen students' understanding of how
history can be used as a tool for social
justice on campus and beyond.
Applications due tonight!

9. What’s Next?
Best Practices for Campus Histories

10. What’s Next?
Expanding the Narrative, Inspiring New Research
• HIST 303 (Spring 2016) History in
Public
• Oral History pilot project
• Conversations with stakeholders,
including GSSWSR, BMC Diversity
Council, Black Alumnae Leadership
Circle, Enid Cook ‘31 Center residents,
and more.
• Supporting new researchers in the
Bryn Mawr College Archives
• Documenting + publishing our work
• ??

11. Black at Bryn Mawr:
What’s Next? Follow along --
Greenfield Digital Center:
http://greenfield.brynmawr.edu
Black at Bryn Mawr main site:
http://blackatbrynmawr.blogs.brynmawr.edu
Facebook updates:
facebook.com/BlackatBrynMawr
Twitter:
#BlackatBrynMawr | #campushistories
Questions?
mmercado@brynmawr.edu