SMR: Student Projects

Student research projects at Georgetown University relating to Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation are wide-ranging and arise through course work, collaborative research projects, and extra-curricular activities. To learn more about how the Library can support teaching, research and scholarship on issues related to Slavery, Memory and Reconciliation, visit our SMR: Instruction and Consultations page.

If you have a project you would like to add to this page, we would love to hear about it! Just send a brief description of the work to us at LibrarySMR@georgetown.edu.

Class and Collaborative Projects

If you are a Georgetown faculty member interested in discussing opportunities for research and projects relating to Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation, contact us at LibrarySMR@georgetown.edu.

Summer Student Research Projects

In summer 2019, the Library collaborated with Professor Adam Rothman on summer research projects carried out by four Research Assistants. This program will continue in the future but had to be canceled for summer 2020 while the Library was closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For more information about future Research Fellow opportunities, contact us at LibrarySMR@georgetown.edu. Below are descriptions of the initial research projects.

  • Timeline of the 1838 sale of the Maryland Jesuit Enslaved Community. Alana Hendy (F '21) created this timeline from archival materials in the Georgetown Slavery Archive, using the Timeline JS platform. The timeline spans a half-century, from the first discussions among the Maryland Catholic clergy about selling their human property in 1813 to the first documentation of members of the GU272 community as newly emancipated people in Louisiana in 1864. 
     
  • Family history of Louisa Mahoney Mason. Paul Rochford (C ’20) researched the family history of Louisa Mahoney Mason, a member of the GU272, who remained in Maryland at the time of the 1838 sale. He created a well-rounded chronology of her life, detailing specific locations, migrations, occupations, and individual or family life events of note. His research paper, available in the Georgetown Slavery Archive, reached into the third and fourth generations of the Mahoney Mason family, in some cases reaching to the early 2000s. 
     
  • Research on the history of Maringouin, Louisiana. Julia Beu (C '20) researched the history of the town of Maringouin, Louisiana, and created an annotated bibliography containing a list of sources pertaining to the town. Maringouin is the site of Jesse Batey’s estate (renamed West Oaks Plantation in 1852) where many of the GU272 were enslaved after their sale from the Maryland Jesuit plantations in 1838.
     
  • Research on the transatlantic slave trade. Natalie Donnell, Doctoral Student in History, investigated all manner of research, scholarship, exhibitions, and initiatives that relate to the history and legacy of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. This was to support further research, scholarship, and digital projects highlighting the importance of the 2018 donation of logbook of the slave ship Mary.

Student Research and Writing

From 2014-2016, Matthew Quallen, F ’16, wrote a series of articles on Georgetown's history with slavery for The Hoya using materials from the University Archives. He also served as a member of the University's Working Group of Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation.