Graduate Student Assistantship

 

Earlier this academic year, the World History Center solicited proposals for a newly created Graduate Student Assistanship position in Public History.  The focus of the intitiative is to create a public facing project that would communicate with a non-academic audience about a topic in the transregional or global past.  Two proposals that were similar in scope and topic were chosen by our committee and two graduate students are now serving as dual-GSAs for the WHC this Spring semester.   

Alex Mountain and Cory Brazile both submitted proposals that focused on local Pittsburgh youth sports in a global context.  Alex's project examines the transformation of ice hockey from a regional sport, popular only in the northern enclaves of North America, to a global, commercial network of teams and players.  Cory's project investigates the impact of the global trends of professionalization in sport on local youth soccer programs. 

Alex and Cory have secured a partnership to assist the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum in their current exhibition expansion and some of their work will be integrated into the exhibition on sport in Pittsburgh. Specifically, the interviews they conduct will contribute to the Museum’s current collection of oral histories, and will feature on the Heinz Making History Blog. 

Check back to this page to learn more about Alex and Cory's work and to read their forthcoming blog which will be featured on the WHC website.  The WHC has recently announced another GSA position for the 2018 Summer Session.