Documenting DC

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

Documenting DC provides Georgetown students with opportunities to research, explore, document, and shape stories about the lived past and present of the District of Columbia. D.C. has unique status in the American experience, related to its identity as both the Nation’s Capitol and as a dynamic and diverse city, with its own distinct communities and concerns, but without true home rule. Working together in production teams, students will propose, develop, shoot/record, and edit short documentaries about aspects of the social, cultural, and political history of DC. Students will work in local archives and collect oral histories in order to engage with individual, community, and collective memory. Connecting critical documentary studies with historiography, Documenting DC asks students to consider the problem of accessing, interpreting, understanding and communicating about the American past. We will focus special attention on histories of race, class, gender, sexuality, and justice. The course builds upon AMST-205: American Civilization III: Documentary and prepares students for FMST-399: Social Justice Documentary.