NYU MA Programs in History

Archives and Public History

Recent Article Published: Aleksandr Gelfand (APH 2013)

Aleksandr Gelfand (APH 2013) is the Information Management Officer at the United Nations Archives and Records Management Section in New York. His article, “Processing and Digitizing from 5000 Miles Away: The Archives of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP)” has been published in SAA’s Archival Outlook. The article details Gelfand’s experience in coordinating the digitization of UNFICYP records while ensuring they remained on-site in Cyprus for continuous access. He touches on the plans and procedures of this unique project, and outlines the lessons and limitations he gleaned after its completion.

Recent Article Published: Alyssa Moore (APH)

Headshot of Alyssa Moore smiling at camera.Alyssa Moore (current APH student) has an article that has been published by the University of Alberta-based journal Past Imperfects. The article, “Constructing the Infant Body: The Intervention of the Educated, Male Physician in Eighteenth-Century Infant Diet,” draws on eighteenth-century medical advice literature to consider how physicians constructed the “healthy” infant body as they sought to bring the child firmly under the control of the medical establishment.

Recent Exhibition: Olivia Newsome (APH 2023)

Photo of Olivia Newsome with black and blonde braids. She is also wearing a yellow dressArchives and Public History MA alum Olivia Newsome’s capstone project, “On Selfhood: Young Lesbians Within the Margins,” will be featured as an exhibition at the LGBT Center. Building upon 42 collected oral and written histories and collected items, Newsome describes the exhibition, titled Young Lesbians, On Selfhood, as “a ‘real time’ community-centered collection that pushes the boundaries of what is historically significant” and explores “the history, ingenuity, joy, and creativity of multiply marginalized young Lesbians.”

Recent Publication: Blog Post (Mary Tsaltas-Ottomanelli)

Mary Tsaltas-Ottomanelli, a current APH student, recently co-wrote a blog post for the Gotham Center for New York City History titled, “Black Loyalists In The Evacuation Of New York City, 1783.” In the article, based in part on her capstone project, Mary and her co-author examine the experiences and fates of Black Loyalists who transformed New York City into “the largest fugitive slave community in North America” during the Revolutionary War. For her research on the topic Mary was awarded the Museum Association of New York’s Award of Merit.

Recent Podcast Episode: Lia Warner (APH 2022), Lyric Hunter (APH 2023), and Allegra Favila (APH)

Lia Warner (APH 2022), Lyric Hunter (APH 2023), and Allegra Favila (a current APH student) recently appeared on an episode of the Archives In Context podcast to discuss how they came to the field, what they find exciting and daunting about being an archivist, and the importance of archival practice and labor. Lia is a Reference and Instruction Associate at NYU’s Bobst Library and is interested in archival labor practices. Lyric is the Moving Image and Recorded Sound Archivist at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and is currently working on a history of the Center through its collections. Allegra is the Exhibitions and Publications Manager at the Grey Art Gallery, NYU’s fine arts museum, and has worked on exhibitions such as last year’s Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World, 1950s–1980s.

Recent Publication: Article (Nicole Font)

Nicole Font (APH 2021) is a Processing Archivist at the Brooklyn Public Library. She recently wrote an article for Archival Outlook titled, “A Bob Dylan Fan Mail Collection Raises Questions of Privacy.” In the article, Nicole discusses the Bob Dylan Archive’s fan mail collection, which she worked with as part of her graduate capstone project, and considers the ethical obligations and dilemmas of balancing privacy and access in archival collections that contain personal documents.