Brandeis University students are on the hunt for local stories.
Starting in the fall the Waltham Community Archives program will have students document the traditions, stories and memories of the city.
"It's a project that cuts across lots of different classes. Obviously it works really well for history classes, but it also works for linguistics, sociology, and so forth," said Mark Auslander, assistant professor anthropology, who helped design the program. "It speaks to an interest that a lot of our students have."
The archives program is a collaboration of students and faculty in the school's master's programs in Cultural Production and Community-Engaged Learning, of which Auslander is the director for both.
Auslander said students will collect stories about people, groups, and organizations, exploring their historical links to the city. The students will look at groups who might otherwise be overlooked.
Topics span from art, material culture, immigration, housing, diversity and even dining. Another idea is to develop audio walking tours through historical neighborhoods, allowing residents to see the sights while listening to information on an iPod or other audio player.
"Whenever possible we're trying to study or record something that people want to have studied," Auslander said. "I think we're going to have a lot of projects going on. By the fall at least about 10 classes will be involved in one way or another. Our hope is that this can have positive benefit for the city."
The program would forge a strong bond between Brandeis and the city, which Auslander and others say is virtually nonexistent.
"I think as a Brandeis grad, I've always been fairly aware of the lack of interaction between the school and the city," said Alex Green, a 2004 Brandeis graduate and owner of Back Pages Books on Moody Street. "Here it's just been sort of we're doing our thing, you're doing your thing approach, I don't see why we just can't do it together. Anyone who wants to step in and make a change for that has my support."
Nadia Hemady, a Brandeis graduate student in the master's program for Cultural Production who is helping to develop the program's Web site, says when she lived in Waltham as a Brandeis undergraduate, she did not take advantage of what the city had to offer. But the archives program, she says, should help change that attitude for future students.
"I lived in Waltham in an apartment for a while, but I never really got out much," Hemady said. "The most I ever did was go to Moody Street and go eating. I think if Brandeis kind of reaches out and works with different community groups, and documents that, then future students can really get a sense of this town."
Green has developed an idea to join Brandeis students and local residents.
"I am going to run a monthly book club that reads books that deal, somehow, with things that are going on in Waltham, where everybody can sort of talk about things that sort of apply to their daily lives and things going on around here," Green said.
Waltham Alliance to Create Housing also has taken interest in the program, and has allowed students to begin looking into the group's history.
"We are particularly interested in helping local people right out of poverty, and we think that an important part of that is to understand the factors that make people from some communities in Waltham less affluent than other communities," said Alex Marthews, executive director of the housing group. "It would be a useful and important thing to collect all histories from members of all communities within Waltham, and to extend out the process of making and understanding the history of Waltham."
Brandeis junior Hannah Clark, a Community-Engaged Learning assistant, will be part of a group focusing on immigrants.
She said while the program is still in its initial stages, she is optimistic about the effects.
" For more information on the Waltham Community Archives project, visit www.walthamarchives.wikispaces.com.
Matt Perkins can be reached at 781-398-8009 or at mperkins@cnc.com.
