In March 2018, Dr. Brandon Marshall, a history teacher at the Lycée Français de New York, received a travel grant to Venice, Italy, to explore ways to bring the work of historians to life for students through field research and filmmaking. Dr. Marshall is one of eleven teachers to receive research grants and of only two of them for a research-travel grant in 2017-18.
Here’s a look at how the grant inspired a new approach to engaging his 11th-grade students:
Thanks to a Lycée research travel grant to Venice, Italy, I conducted historical field research and produced my first documentary about the experience with the help the Lycée’s Media Integrator, Jeff Rogers.
I conceived the film with the desire to show my students some of the actual work historians do in the field and to inspire them to think critically about how their studies in history at school can connect them beyond the classroom to their lived experience.
Dr. Marshall and Mr. Rogers reflect on the project:
Dr. Marshall’s first documentary, produced with support from Mr. Rogers.
My students screened the film in class and then were challenged to make their own “desktop documentaries” based on interviews with scholars of history. Students were required to select and contact scholars on their own, and many of them incorporated their interviews into their documentaries.
All of our films sought to answer two essential questions:
- How do historians research and write historical narratives?
- Why study history?
Below are excerpts from our student films:
Table of contents image: 17th-century Santa Maria de Salute Basilica in Venice, Italy (Shutterstock)
About the Author :
S. Brandon Marshall earned a BA from Harding University (1999) double majoring in History and Humanities and double minoring in French and Theological Studies. He holds a MA in history from the University of Arkansas (2006). He earned a MS. Edu. (2011), a MPhil in history (2011), and the PhD in History (2016) from Syracuse University. His dissertation centered on diplomatic culture in France and the Mediterranean World during the reign of Louis XIV. He continues researching a comparative study of France and the Venetian Republic in the late seventeenth century. Dr. Marshall joined the History-Geography Department at the Lycée Français de New York in 2014.