Objects

Instructions for Objects and Migrations Projects

This assignment is inspired by the Tenement Museum’s Your Story, Our Story project, The Nation’s Migration Stories Project, New American Story Project, and PBS American Portrait among countless other projects that have asked for immigrants’ stories. The proliferation of these projects is no accident. It seems that as dozens of countries all across the globe take increasingly anti-immigrant turns, we are in need of a reminder of the people and lives behind such faceless words as "immigrant", "refugee", and "asylum seeker". During such times, we feel the need to reaffirm the connections and commonalities between previous immigrants and new ones, to remind ourselves and others that new immigrants are not so alien from previous immigrants or ourselves. We think that all people will be able to read these stories, look on the objects that we each hold dear and be reminded of their own hopes, dreams, and family histories of transit.

For this project, the term “immigrant” is very broadly-defined. While some may strongly identify as an immigrant, others may feel that they don’t have an “immigrant story” because they were born in the US or have lived in the US for several generations. Nevertheless, as evidenced by the many assigned readings on different immigrant groups including the Chinese, Mexican, Irish, German, Italian, Eastern European Jewish, and African American experience of the Great Migration, it's clear that usually it takes only a little research (going back as few as one or two generations) to find a story about transplantation and movement. 

The Objects and Migrations assignment asks students to choose an object that reminds them of their immigrant experience in some way. Objects may be photos or a photo, a precious book, a grandparent’s watch, a piece of jewelry, or even an article of clothing. Historians call such objects artefacts and know that what gets saved and or discarded impacts the story that we tell ourselves about who we are and what is our past. This assignment puts students at the center of that history-making narrative. The artefacts that we too easily overlook or discard become the history that is saved, representing peoples' stories and lives.

Steps for Writing Blog Post:

  1. Choose an object related to your immigrant experience.
  2. Take a picture of that object.
  3. Write a blog post and do the following:
    • make sure you insert an image of your chosen object(s),
    • tell us about your chosen object,
    • explain how it relates to your immigrant experience, and
    • connect your own experiences to the stories of other immigrants (past or present)
    • if you would like to see some examples of such essays, visit the sites above or visit the Migrations - Objects & Stories blog.
  4. Also include the following Labels (hashtags, tags)
    1. choose the existing tag "objects"
    2. choose an existing country label or create a new one indicating country of origin
  5. Publish your blog post

Steps for Submitting the Assignment:

  1. Return to Bb.
  2. Choose "Semester Assignment"
  3. provide a link to your post.
  4. Submit the assignment.
Here's a video about how to embed videos into a blog post:


You may also want to the check the other How-to posts.

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