As my internship continues on, I have been tasked with an exciting yet challenging project for the Center for Studying Structures of Race. For the last two weeks, I have been helping the Center get its Instagram page up and running. We are planning on posting events such as conferences and guest speakers as well as other research, projects, and information that the Center wants to post on social media. This process has been interesting because the Center is so new and I have not really had PR type experiences. I think using social media is a great way to get people, especially younger generations, engaged with public history. However, it is tricky to cater information about topics like race on a public social media platform. Our goal is to provide digestible and informative posts about structures of race without inserting personal opinions.
I have also been reading White Lies: Race and the Myths of Whiteness by Maurice Berger and Nineteenth-Century Brick Architecture in the Roanoke Valley and Beyond: Discovering the True Legacies of the Dyerle Builders by Michael J. Pulice. White Lies is a phenomenal book that has short, personal stories from Berger about his encounters with ideas about race in the United States. The other text is super informative about nineteenth-century brick work especially as it relates to structures at Roanoke College such as the Administration Building, Monterery House, and Bittle Hall.
Right now, I am crafting visually engaging posts about the Administration Building at Roanoke, the dedication plaques on the Admin Building, and artwork relevant to our annual themes. Canva has proven to be a great program to create Instagram posts. I have been learning a lot about the program and other information about PR. Below is a snapshot of a post I have been working on and the two texts that I have been engaging with.
