AMANDA PITT-REED
EDUCATION
Master
of Arts in History, emphasis in Public History with track in Archival Management, GPA 3.898 May
2012
Bachelor
of Arts with a major in History,
minors in English, Religious Studies, and
Behavioral Science with an emphasis
on Sociology. Honors Diploma
Recipient with GPA 4.0 May 2009
WORK
EXPERIENCE
Adjunct Faculty,
Department of History and Political Science May
2012 – Present
·
Taught five-week section of
History 108 - World Civilizations via Moodle online course software.
·
Taught eight-week section of
History 151 - American Society to 1877 via Moodle online course software.
·
Planned an Introduction to
Public History course to have been co-taught on-ground with a colleague.
DAVIES MANOR PLANTATION Bartlett , Tennessee
Archival Consultant April
2012 – Present
·
Cataloged and abstracted historic ledgers
pertaining to 19th and 20th century farm life. Created a
finding aid.
·
Developed a preservation plan and rehoused
ledgers and historic documents to archival and museum standards.
·
Conducted and transcribed oral history
interviews about sharecropping in Shelby
Museum Assistant May
2012 – November 2012
·
Developed and promoted museum educational
material. Updated and maintained website and social media. Created flyers, promotional
material, and monthly newsletters. Publicized and facilitated special events.
·
Coordinated and maintained the internship
program.
·
Assisted in the development of a formal
Collections Policy, and accessioned and photographed all acquisitions.
·
Led tours of the museum when necessary. Planned
and conducted sensitive oral history interviews. Answered the phones and provided
customer service regarding facility rentals.
Graduate Student Worker,
Albert Gore Research
Center
·
Worked with finding aid creation and
reformatting, often requiring research into archival collections for enhanced
description. Edited colleagues’ and undergraduate workers’ finding aids,
abstracts, and databases.
Digital Projects
Assistant, James Walker Library Fall
2010 – October 2011
·
Assisted in metadata entry, editing,
development, scanning of yearbooks and other pertinent publications, and file
management for the MTSU Memory Collection. Worked with Adobe Photoshop,
ContentDM, Adobe Professional, PDFCombine, and a BookEye scanner with relevant scanning
software.
Research Assistant Spring
2011
·
Conducted archival research of NAACP finding
aids, microfilm and microfiche.
Graduate Teaching
Assistant Fall
2009 – December 2010
·
Acted as a course counselor for three semesters in
History 2010, American History to 1877, as well as a grader. Held office hours,
assisted students with course material, graded assignments, and assisted the
professor in developing course assignments and rubrics.
Digital Projects Intern Summer
2010
·
Supported the Archives in the curatorial care of
its collections, including processing, preserving, storing, digitizing and
cataloging historical photographs and negatives. Aided the director in a pilot
project to locate and accession historical community photos. Assisted with
general collections management and daily archives operations as needed,
including assisting with research requests in person and over the phone.
Work-Study, Department
of Academic Affairs Fall
2005 – May 2009
Collections
Representative Summer
2006, 2007; Winter 2006, 2007; Summer 2008
RELEVANT
UNPAID INTERNSHIPS AND VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE
DAVIES MANOR PLANTATION Memphis , Tennessee
Intern and Docent February
2011 – present
·
Will work on abstracting and cataloging the
museum’s historic ledger books. Upon completion, will have created a finding
aid for the ledgers and have added the ledgers to the museum’s catalog system.
Intern, Nashville
·
Processed Sacred Sites collection stored in the
Nashville Room permanent collection. Catalogued information, once processed,
into a finding aid. Assisted in research of building locations through use of
city directories.
Intern, Metro Nashville
·
Processed the Social Services collection,
spanning over eighteen archival boxes of material between six and fifty years
old.
Intern Spring
2007
·
Processed the Adele Litty collection stored in
the Memphis History room. Catalogued information, once processed, into a
finding aid. Worked with preservation of materials, some of which were ninety
years old.
RELEVANT
COURSEWORK AND RELATED SKILLS
·
Historiography
Wrote
an in-depth research paper on the historiography of the historical idea of the
sacred, focusing particularly on sacred space and travel literature.
·
Public
History Seminar Conducted deed and census research on an
African-American community that predated the Stones River Battlefield in Murfreesboro
·
Essentials
of Archival Management Learned the basics of archival theory in
application to managing an archival institution. Created an inventory and
identified arrangement of two filing cabinets of a large collection at
Rutherford County Archives. Made preservation and privacy recommendations.
·
Public
Programming for Historical Organizations and Archives: Interpreting and
Representing Oral Histories Worked with Express Scribe, Audacity,
Photoshop, and SoundSlidesPlus to create a radio and soundslide show with Oral
Histories. Wrote an in-depth analytical research paper on the major themes in
the Oral Histories.
·
Readings
·
Seminar
in Archival Management Discussed archival theory and the cultural
importance of archives. Wrote weekly essay responses to course themes and
readings and contributed to semi-weekly online discussion of course themes.
·
Research
in American History Using Non-Standard Sources
Conducted research of a Nashville Vietnamese population using ethnographic
observation, image analysis, cultural geography, and object analysis. Led class
discussion on course readings twice. Wrote five to eight page papers in each of
these topic areas, culminating in a final product of thirty pages of research,
presentation to classmates, faculty, and community members, and appearance on On
the Record, campus radio show.
·
Essentials
of Historic Preservation & Cultural Resources Management
Learned the legal aspects of historic preservation and managing cultural
resources. Wrote book reviews of seminal works in the field. Conducted
fieldwork throughout the semester and co-wrote a report on Old City Cemetery in Franklin ,
Tennessee
·
Topics
in American History: Black Power and the Civil Rights Movement Led
class discussion and wrote book reviews conforming to American Historical
Association Review standards. Wrote an in-depth historiographical essay on the
involvement of white female activists in the Civil Rights Movement.
·
Historical
Research Methods Wrote an in-depth research paper on participatory
photographic archival collections and cultural memory, specifically the
Vanishing Georgia Collection at the Georgia Division of Archives and History.
·
Oral
History: Theory and Methodology Conducted and transcribed
three professional-quality oral history interviews. Developed teacher
questions, context notes, biographical notes, and abstract notes for two of
these interviews, which are permanent additions to the African American Oral
History Project. Audited five oral history interviews.
·
Essentials
of Museum Management Evaluated local museums and completed a
practicum with Davies Manor Plantation in Memphis
COMPUTER
SKILLS
Microsoft Office ● Photoshop ● Irfanview
●
ContentDM ● Express Scribe ●
Audacity ●
SoundSlidesPlus ● Moodle
Data Entry ● Scanners and scanning software
● Microfiche/film
scanning machinery ● Typing speed 70 wpm
AWARDS,
HONORS, PRESENTATIONS AND CONFERENCES ATTENDED
Spring
2012 ● Volunteer, Tennessee
·
Attended the West Tennessee Association of Museums meeting on Museum Audience
Fall
2011 ● Attended the Society of Tennessee
Spring
2011 ● Representative of MTSU Public History
Program, National Council on Public
History Conference
● Judge in junior individual performance
category, Tennessee State History Day
competition
● Judge in African-American History special
category, Middle Tennessee State History
Day competition
● Junior group performance category judge, Meigs Magnet
School
Fall
2010 ● Presented project “Interpreting Narratives
of Race, Class and Gender in Public Programming” at the
Oral
History Association annual meeting
● Awarded an MTSU student travel grant from
the College of Graduate Studies
● Served on a panel of future archivists
discussing participatory archives, the cultural impact of archives, and
community outreach at the Society of
Tennessee Archivists Annual Meeting
● Appeared on MTSU’s On the Record with Gina Logue to discuss research on the Vietnamese
community in West Nashville ,
TN
Spring
2010 ● Student volunteer, National Council on Public History annual conference
● Judge in junior individual documentaries
category, Tennessee State History Day competition
● Judge in Science special category, Middle Tennessee State History Day
competition
Spring
2009 ● Induction into Sigma Tau Delta, English Honor Society
● Student Presenter, Alpha Chi National Convention
● Top Presenter Award in the Political
Science/ Economics Category for presentation “The National
Socialist
Exploitation of the Myth of ‘the Stab in the Back’”
● Published in CBU Honors Journal, Loquemur
● Second
Place
● CBU
History Department Outstanding Graduate of the Year
● CBU
Alumni Academic Achievement Award
● Alpha Sigma Tau, Delta Chi Chapter,
Nationally Distinguished Top Tau
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
·
West
Tennessee Historical Society, 2012 – present
·
Society
of Tennessee Archivists, 2010 – present
·
National
Council for Public History, 2009 – 2012
·
Intermuseum
Council of Nashville
·
Society
of American Archivists, 2010 – 2011
·
Association
of Graduate Students in History at MTSU – Secretary,
Fall 2010 – Spring 2011
·
Maintained
and provided content for the Association’s Facebook page; took and emailed
meeting minutes
References and online
portfolio available upon request.
