History professor Jay Price said researching local history presents a unique challenge, as information can be hard to find. But, it can also be uniquely fulfilling. It gives people a connection to their location and community.

“I think we tend to think of history as big and important things and big cities and all that,” Price said. “We forget that there’s an awful lot of history right around us that connects us to (a) place. The more you understand who you are and where you are …  you connect to a location and … you can appreciate sort of why things are the way they are. I think people usually think that history is about looking back. It’s really about looking around.”

Price and Seth Bate, a program manager in WSU’s Center for Organization Development, co-teach History 519, Local and Community History, at Wichita State. Instead of taking the usual global or national approach, the class is specifically focused on studying history through the local lens, often by talking directly to the community.

Price’s students have been diving deep into the history of Wichita. As a part of the class, they share what they’ve learned by organizing community events. 

The group held a presentation at MakeICT on Nov. 15. They invited guests and MakeICT members to not only learn a bit about the history of South Wichita — where MakeICT is located — but also to learn how to study and research history on their own.

“Over the last several weeks, we’ve been working with the MakeICT members and community to put together a program to bring some of South Wichita history to them, so that way, we can spread awareness for a region in Wichita which does not get a lot of attention from either news or in history,” said Kian Williams, one of the students enrolled in the class. 

The students guided the group through research techniques like using academic databases and refining search terms to find accurate information. 

For Williams, who uses they/them pronouns, an interest in local history runs deep, even though what is “local” to them has changed.

“My mother is a public historian,” Williams said. “She used to work for the Reno County Museum when I was in high school. And so local and community history just kind of means a little bit more to me. It’s a lot more personal. And so taking a class to learn about Wichita community history, since I did not grow up here, has been very interesting to me.”

MJ Jacobs, another student in the class, isn’t from Wichita either. So learning about its history was new for her. She said that sharing the history with others was an even more unique experience. 

“When I got into the class, I was awakened that I was not just learning local community history, I was engaging,” she said. “Honestly, it has been a challenge because I come from a more digital (background). I like to work by myself a lot on my projects and this has definitely been a team effort.”

But despite the challenge, Jacobs and her fellow archeology grad student, Hannah Forker, both said that understanding local history is important, and talking to the community is crucial for that.

“There’s history everywhere,” Forker said. “It’s just kind of knowing where to look. The more you see that history, the more you know about where you are, the more you can kind of understand about who you are.”