Speakers: Jess Reingold, Jenn Hill, Katie Hartraft
Abstract: The noise of typing filled the small classroom. Domain Fellows, student ambassadors for the Domain of One’s Own program, sat quietly working on their independent projects. It is these students who show their classmates that their domains can be more than academic websites. Their websites can be spaces for expression of their art, music, and other intrinsically motivated areas of interest. The silence is broken by discussion of the upcoming Domain Days. The students excitedly pondered about how to paint the school’s Spirit Rock, how to set up the booth, and most importantly who should be the Domainosaur. Yes, the Domainosaur, the official mascot of the Domain Fellows and Domain of One’s Own at the University of Mary Washington.
My Notes
Several current and former Domain Fellows talked about their own experiences and the broader point of the Domain Fellows project at the University of Mary Washington.
We learned about the Domain Fellows work on:
- their own projects
- Domain Days
- Social media
- Traditional media
- Starting similar programs
I think we at OU have analogues for this program with the Global Engagement Fellows, the History Fellows, and a couple of the other undergrad groups who are super active on Create. However, I would love to expand our support for a project like what UMW has.
Presentations by students are too rare in our field, so I was happy to see these students demoing their work. I also love these programs that support student work in the Domains space, and hope I get to talk to these students.
In the Q&A, Lora Taub asked about connecting the UMW Domain Fellows with similar projects and students at other campuses. The students seemed excited about using Zoom to build a broader community. I’d be really interested in following up with Lora about their student fellowships at Muhlenberg College, and following up on this idea for a broader, inter-college community.
