Using Interdisciplinary Capstone to Promote Cultural Preservation

Abstract

The preservation of a community's cultural heritage is a challenge for neighborhood organizations, city boards, and planning committees. Bloomfield College, along with our community partners in Newark, used a Capstone course to revitalize a cultural history and create a transformation for a community that is in need of change. Focusing on the history of Newark, New Jersey from 1925 into the 1970s, we sought to combine oral history with creative writing and technology to provide Newark's youth and the Bloomfield College community with an appreciation of the City's rich cultural heritage, to encourage action by political leaders, and to foster a desire to further pursue cultural preservation.