Ethnic Layers of Detroit: Experiencing Place through Digital Storytelling
FAIN: HD-51852-14
Wayne State University (Detroit, MI 48201-1347)
Krysta Ryzewski (Project Director: September 2013 to April 2017)
Kerry C. Davis (Co Project Director: September 2015 to April 2017)
The continued development and testing in the classroom of an interactive, mobile storytelling website that allows for the creation of multimedia narratives of historic sites. This phase of the project would focus on creating narratives that illustrate the traditions and transformation of Detroit's ethnic neighborhoods, with attention to the Corktown, Chinatown, Poletown, and Heidelberg neighborhoods.
Ethnic Layers of Detroit (ELD) seeks to engage students in documenting and sharing the complex layers of Detroit’s ethnic histories though an interactive digital storytelling web portal. We are requesting Level II funding to expand on our pilot project to hire student assistants to develop 20-25 additional multimedia narratives over an 18-month period.This project is innovative in that it facilitates interdisciplinary investigation and collaboration, and uses available technology in new ways to explore the multilayered connections between people, practices and the urban environment through narrative and experientially-based learning activities. By constructing a student-centered project with overlapping creative, intellectual, and technical training opportunities, our project will provide students with the transferable skills and experience to communicate with and contribute to a range of humanities, multimedia, and urban-focused colleagues and careers.
Associated Products
Reinventing Detroit’s Narrative through Digital Story-telling (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Reinventing Detroit’s Narrative through Digital Story-telling
Author: Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan
Author: Laura Kline
Author: Alina Klin
Author: Julie Koehler
Author: Felecia Lucht
Author: Krysta Ryzewski
Abstract: Reinventing Detroit’s Narrative through Digital Story-telling
Date: 10/31/2014
Conference Name: "The City", Wayne State University Humanities Center, Detroit, MI
On the Urban Research Frontier: Documenting the Ethnic Layers of Detroit (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: On the Urban Research Frontier: Documenting the Ethnic Layers of Detroit
Author: Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan
Author: Felecia Lucht
Author: Laura Kline
Author: Alina Klin
Author: Julie Koehler
Author: Krysta Ryzewski
Abstract: On the Urban Research Frontier: Documenting the Ethnic Layers of Detroit
Date: 9/26/2014
Conference Name: Network Detroit, Lawrence Technological University, Southfield, MI
Exploring the Ethnic Layers of Detroit through Mobile Technologies and Augmented Reality (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Exploring the Ethnic Layers of Detroit through Mobile Technologies and Augmented Reality
Author: Felecia Lucht
Author: Julie Koehler
Author: Laura Kline
Abstract: Exploring the Ethnic Layers of Detroit through Mobile Technologies and Augmented Reality
Date: 11/15/2014
Conference Name: Midwest Modern Language Association Conference
Using Digital Storytelling to Connect Classrooms and Communities (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Using Digital Storytelling to Connect Classrooms and Communities
Author: Felecia Lucht
Author: Julie Koehler
Abstract: Using Digital Storytelling to Connect Classrooms and Communities
Date: 11/23/2014
Conference Name: Annual Convention and World Languages Expo
Digging Detroit: Tommy's Bar Speakeasy (Film/TV/Video Broadcast or Recording)Title: Digging Detroit: Tommy's Bar Speakeasy
Writer: Thomas Reed
Director: Thomas Reed
Producer: Thomas Reed
Abstract: This TV episode of Digging Detroit features the Ethnic Layers of Detroit's research about the Speakeasy at Tommy's Bar. The Speakeasy site is also home to one of the digital stories created by the Ethnic Layers of Detroit project.
Year: 2014
Primary URL:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlpK1uzuSeQPrimary URL Description: Link to video of episode
Access Model: Open Access
Format: Video
Digital Storytelling in the Humanities Workshop (Conference/Institute/Seminar)Title: Digital Storytelling in the Humanities Workshop
Author: Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan
Author: Felecia Lucht
Author: Laura Kline
Author: Alina Klin
Author: Julie Koehler
Author: Krysta Ryzewski
Abstract: Digital storytelling workshop for Wayne State University students
Date Range: 2/1/2015
Location: Wayne State University, Detroit, MI
City Narratives (Public Lecture or Presentation)Title: City Narratives
Abstract: City Narratives (invited lecture)
Author: Felecia Lucht
Date: 4/15/2015
Location: University of North Dakota
Digital Storytelling in the Humanities Workshop (Conference/Institute/Seminar)Title: Digital Storytelling in the Humanities Workshop
Author: Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan
Author: Laura Kline
Author: Alina Klin
Author: Julie Koehler
Author: Krysta Ryzewski
Abstract: Digital storytelling workshop for students, staff, faculty and community members
Date Range: 2/19/2016
Location: Wayne State University, Detroit, MI
Anthropology for the City: Digital Storytelling and Collaborative Mapping in Detroit (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Anthropology for the City: Digital Storytelling and Collaborative Mapping in Detroit
Author: Krysta Ryzewski
Abstract: Invited talk, Anthropology for the City: Digital Storytelling and Collaborative Mapping in Detroit, presented at the Sustainable Neighborhoods Workshop, Binghamton University, NY
Date: 3/22/2016
Conference Name: Sustainable Neighborhoods Workshop, Binghamton University, NY
Detroit 139: Archaeology and the Future-Making of a Post-Industrial City (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Detroit 139: Archaeology and the Future-Making of a Post-Industrial City
Author: Krysta Ryzewski
Abstract: Invited paper, Detroit 139: Archaeology and the Future-Making of a Post-Industrial City
Date: 4/15/2016
Conference Name: Archaeology and Futurity Conference, Brown University, Providence, RI
Ethnic Layers of Detroit: Experiencing Place through Digital Storytelling (Public Lecture or Presentation)Title: Ethnic Layers of Detroit: Experiencing Place through Digital Storytelling
Abstract: Presentation for the Digital Humanities @ Wayne group entitled, Ethnic Layers of Detroit: Experiencing Place through Digital Storytelling
Author: Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan
Author: Laura Kline
Date: 4/21/2016
Location: Humanities Center, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI
Ethnic Layers of Detroit: Experiencing Place through Digital Storytelling (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Ethnic Layers of Detroit: Experiencing Place through Digital Storytelling
Author: Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan
Author: Laura Kline
Author: Alina Klin
Author: Julie Koehler
Abstract: Presentation entitled, Ethnic Layers of Detroit: Experiencing Place through Digital Storytelling
Date: 5/12/2016
Conference Name: CALICO/IALLT, Computer-Assisted Language Instruction Consortium
Ethnic Layers of Detroit (Web Resource)Title: Ethnic Layers of Detroit
Author: Krysta Ryzewski
Abstract: Ethnic Layers of Detroit (ELD) is an interdisciplinary urban-focused digital humanities project engaging faculty and student researchers in creating, documenting, and sharing multilayered multimedia narratives of Detroit’s ethnic histories. Explore this website to learn about ELD, the historic sites selected for the narratives, ways to interact with and experience the digital stories, and the pedagogical applications of the project. Watch the digital stories and learn about the colorful, dynamic and often forgotten and untold history of Detroit.
Year: 2015
Primary URL:
http://www.clas.wayne.edu/ELD/Making Music in Detroit: Archaeology, Popular Music and Post-Industrial Heritage (Book Section)Title: Making Music in Detroit: Archaeology, Popular Music and Post-Industrial Heritage
Author: Krista Ryzewski
Editor: L. McAtackney
Editor: K. Ryzewski
Abstract: Contemporary Archaeology and the City' foregrounds the archaeological study of post-industrial and other urban transformations through a diverse, international collection of case studies. Over the past decade contemporary archaeology has emerged as a dynamic force for dissecting and contextualizing the material complexities of present-day societies. In doing so it challenges conventional anthropological and archaeological conceptions of the past by pushing temporal boundaries closer to, if not into, the present. The volume is organized around three themes that highlight the multifaceted character of urban life in present-day cities--creativity, ruination, and political action. The case studies in this volume offer comparative perspectives on transformative global, urban processes in local contexts, including the struggling, post-industrial cities of Detroit, Belfast, Indianapolis, Berlin, Liverpool, Bele´m, and post-apartheid Cape Town, as well as the thriving urban centres of Melbourne, New York City, London, Chicago, and Istanbul. Contributions demonstrate how the contemporary city is a palimpsest composed of archaeological assemblages--of the built environment, the surfaces, and buried subsurface--that retain traces of the various pasts entangled with one another in the present. This volume positions the city as one of the most important and dynamic arenas for archaeological studies of the contemporary by dissecting and reconceptualizing some of the major theoretical and methodological issues currently facing socially-engaged archaeologists
Year: 2017
Primary URL:
https://www.worldcat.org/title/contemporary-archaeology-and-the-city-creativity-ruination-and-political-action/oclc/1002189254Access Model: Print
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Book Title: Contemporary Archaeology and the City: Creativity, Ruination and Political Action
Reclaiming Detroit: Decolonizing Archaeology in the Postindustrial City (Blog Post)Title: Reclaiming Detroit: Decolonizing Archaeology in the Postindustrial City
Author: Krysta Ryzewski
Abstract: In this post [the author] briefly reflect[s] upon the ways in which contemporary urban archaeology is attempting to work both within and against the frameworks of late capitalist development, and [the author] provide[s] a few examples from our work at Wayne State University that link these efforts to the themes of participatory action, unlearning, return, and reclaiming that fall under the umbrella of decolonized practice.
Date: 07/05/2016
Primary URL:
https://savageminds.org/2016/07/05/reclaiming-detroit-decolonizing-archaeology-in-the-postindustrial-city/Website: Savage Minds: Notes and Queries in Anthropology
Those Were the Days: Detroit’s Russian Bear Inn (Article)Title: Those Were the Days: Detroit’s Russian Bear Inn
Author: Laura Kline
Author: Katie Korth
Abstract: Discussion of the development of a Detroit-area lodge with ties to the Russo-American community as part of the Ethnic Layers of Detroit project.
Year: 2015
Access Model: Print
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: BDAA Newsletter: The Official Journal of the Balalaika and Domra Association of America
Publisher: Balalaika and Domra Association of America
No Home for the “Ordinary Gamut”: A Historical Archaeology of Community Displacement and the Creation of Detroit, City Beautiful (Article)Title: No Home for the “Ordinary Gamut”: A Historical Archaeology of Community Displacement and the Creation of Detroit, City Beautiful
Author: Krysta Ryzewski
Abstract: Michigan Central Station and Roosevelt Park were constructed between 1908 and 1918 as part of Detroit’s City Beautiful Movement. The construction process was a place-making effort designed to implant order on the urban landscape that involved the displacement of a community who represented everything that city planners sought to erase from Detroit’s city center: overcrowding, poverty, immigrants, and transient populations. Current historical archaeological research reveals how the existing ornamental landscape of Roosevelt Park masks the history of a forgotten working-class neighborhood. This synthesis of archival and material evidence details the conditions of life within the neighborhood and of a contentious, decade-long displacement struggle rooted in the inequalities of early-20th-century industrial capitalism. Positioned at the start of a century of controversial urban planning initiatives, the Roosevelt Park case study encourages understandings of displacement as a process that has diachronic and comparative dimensions, both in Detroit and in other urban settings.
Year: 2015
Primary URL:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1469605315601907Access Model: Subscription
Format: Journal
Publisher: SAGE Journals