Introduction

Imagine a warm afternoon on campus in 1970, thousands of students clouding Route 1 and Mckeldin mall in an anti-Vietnam War protest so big, the National Guard was deployed. You do not have to imagine, this was reality for the University of Maryland in the 1970s. The Diamondback, University of Maryland’s student Newspaper has covered protests since it was established, including for human rights and anti-war protests. This project will explore the history of student protests at the University of Maryland through collage. Through comparing and contrasting protests on campus from the 20th and 21st centuries, this project will show how advocacy on campus has developed and changed throughout the years. Photography plays a central role in telling these stories, capturing protests from over a hundred years ago, showing just how similar we mobilize for activism today.

Literature Review

Protest and advocacy is a huge part of the college experience and has been a crucial element to the University of Maryland’s culture for years. This history outlines a foundation for my project, highlighting the past and present of activism on campus. According to the University of Maryland’s University Libraries section on Student Activism at the University of Maryland, highlighted by archivist Natalie Tapuzzano, University of Maryland students have been part of a wide variety of movements for political and social change. University Libraries highlights several issues that have heightened protest and UMD, including Anti-War, economic justice, environmentalism, LGBTQ+, racial, undocumented students, and women's rights and justice. 

Photography is a crucial element to capturing these moments. According to Street Wise Arts in “Photography as Activism” by Kree Thawley, photographs are able to “serve as a memorial for lives lost, a visual claiming of space, and a way to humanize narratives.” These visuals do not only campaign for social and political change, but bring awareness to issues and narratives that many may not be aware of. Photos are able to serve as tools for not only documentation but drawing attention to injustice around the world, in this case, on the University of Maryland’s campus. Through reading Thawley’s article, it allowed more knowledge to be incorporated into this project of how powerful photographs can be, and how choices for photos based on how impactful their visuals could be for social and political change. 

Methods

I examined materials from the University of Maryland’s archives as well as content on the UMD libraries website and other news websites to understand the historical context of activism on this campus and select photos to include in my collage. I then utilized Canva to collage all the photos I selected together into sequenced collages representing the different time periods. I cut and pasted photos, keeping some original and cutting some to only have specific parts of the photo. 

Audience & Impact

The intended audience for this project is peers, other college students. This project will depict advocacy and protests by college students on college campuses, and to hope to inspire my peers to engage in activism around campus. This project aims to adhere to social issues peers are currently interested in and show the parallels between those and the past. As a member of Generation-Z, many and most of my peers are educated, eager to advocate for human rights and promote advocacy in general. I want to inspire others to speak out about issues they care about, knowing that even small moments of activism can make a difference, and students at University of Maryland have been doing the same thing for years. Although my intended audience is my peers, I also want my project to speak to anyone who is interested in taking action in their communities. Anyone can be part of advocacy, even on college campuses, as speaking up for what’s right is not limited to one group, race, gender, age, or socioeconomic status. As a history major, this project directly taps into my interests of studying the past of advocacy and college student experiences, and I am truly passionate about this project and making an impact and encouraging my peers to advocate for what they believe in.

References

Link to Collage References: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ixp1gs_YxyPkR9boZHXFe9rqz1ThGMJy9m_VnT_xEfQ/edit?usp=sharing

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Harold, Heather, and Irene for all their support over the last two years! I would not be as knowledgeable as I am today and would not be able to complete this project without their constant help and support.