Why Story Maps Matter
People understand the world through stories. People absorb their stories in ever-expanding ways. Here is a preview of a powerful, emerging form of digital story-telling, which we’ll be using frequently in this space.
Education
93 posts
Real Voices from Real Mississippi
How podcasts are reshaping how high-school students research and tell stories of their hometowns throughout Mississippi.
The Past, the Future, the Present: Updates from Coast to Coast
A Fellow named, college services goes big, and scenes from a Day of Enlightened Living—here are three updates on stories we've been following on this site over the years.
A Message to the Class of 2021
What's a Mike? And what makes a Mike Mighty?
History Come Alive – and Livestreamed!
Eighth of May Emancipation Celebration in Columbus, Mississippi now available on YouTube.
‘One Flat Tire Away’: Community Colleges Deserve the Spotlight
Two members of the Biden family, one a president with an "American Families Plan" and the other a First Lady known as "Dr. B" to her community college students, make the case for these schools as engines of opportunity.
Three Guides to the Next America
This note is to kick off a resumed set of chronicles in the “Our Towns” series, after time away for a long Atlantic project on the origins of this era’s public-health and…
‘The world you can change is the world you can reach out and touch’: How history is shaping the future of Columbus, Mississippi
Through research, partnerships, and performance, students are giving a voice to history’s ignored chapters to tell the fuller story of their town.
What Post-pandemic Repair Could Look Like
An update, following a report last month, on plans to repair the damage now being done.
The Sport That’s Like Playing in a Jazz Quartet
"Rowing is a sport, everything else is a game."
‘A Most Beautiful Thing’ in a Time of Racial Reckoning
This film's story would be surprising and engrossing at any time, but it has a current power and relevance its producers could not have foreseen when they began making it.
Dayton, Ohio, Is ‘a Place That Knows What It Is’
Let’s take another look at Dayton, Ohio. For context, here is a report on how the city has dealt with the loss of major industries over the decades, and with the…
The University of Dayton Is Reinventing Town-Gown Relations
It’s time for another report on Dayton, Ohio, subject of this introduction last month. A century ago, Dayton was known mainly for the things it created, from the Wright Brothers’ airplanes…
New Jobs, New Residents, and New Possibilities
Here are news items and developments related to trends we’ve been covering in the recent “Our Towns” series, and elsewhere: The furniture business returns, and is looking for furniture-makers. In a…
The Power of a Community College
Last week I reported on a conference of community-college leaders that Deb Fallows and I attended in Michigan, and about some of the reasons we’ve come to believe that community colleges are…
The Choices Facing Community Colleges
Decisions critical to the future of these institutions so crucial to this economic and political moment