Time Machines

We are pleased to present the final projects of our 2024-2025 Time Machines cohort. Our students worked hard over the course of the year to conduct research, workshop their ideas, engage in conversation with each other, and produce work that illuminates the variety of materials in Archives and Special Collections.

Student: Maxwell Kastner

Final Project: September 11th 2001 at Seton Hall University: Retaliation and Remembrance [Written Paper]

Archival Collection: SHU 0054 The Setonian; Seton Hall University Magazine

Max Kastner is a sophomore majoring in Social & Behavioral Sciences and Modern Languages. Utilizing archival copies of Seton Hall's student newspaper, The Setonian, their project focuses on Seton Hall's reaction to 9/11 as a Catholic Institution of Higher Education.

Student: Jacob Mudd

Final Project: Magic in Medicine [Written Paper and Handmade Grimoire]

Archival Collection: MSS 0029 Herbert Kraft manuscript and book leaves

Jacob Mudd is a sophomore Creative Writing and Visual and Sound Media double major with a minor in English. His project is inspired by Robert Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy, looking at the role magic played in medicine in the late medieval early Renaissance periods. It includes a creative grimoire that contains a variety of medieval illnesses and their magical cures and is accompanied by a paper that looks at answering the question of whether it would be moral to use magic in medicine from the perspective of someone living during that time.

Student: Michael O'Brien

Final Project: Kenneth Burke and Dennis Donogue: Poetry in the Round at Seton Hall University [Video transcription and podcast]

Archival Collection: SHU 0014 College of Arts and Sciences collection

Mickey O'Brien is a senior communications major. For his project, he transcribed a video recording of Kenneth Burke, the communications theorist and rhetorician, speaking at Seton Hall in the 1980s. A call was made by the Kenneth Burke society to see what’s on this tape, and Mickey has answered that call. His project also includes discussions with Burke experts on campus, Dr. Radwan, Dr. Kimble and Dean Crable.

Student: Olivia Pasciucco

Final Project: The Sicilian Carretto: A Moving Canvas of Heritage and Storytelling [Video]

Walsh Gallery Object: Painted Wood Panel, Sicilian, 18th century

Olivia Pasciucco is a senior History major and Russian & East European Studies minor. She will be graduating this May and aspires to have a career in Museum Education. Olivia’s Time Machines project is: The Sicilian Carretto: A Moving Canvas of Heritage and Storytelling. It is a YouTube video about the Sicilian carretto, what it is, historical background, and cultural significance.

Student: Wania Shabee

Final Project: Introduction to the life of Dr. Francis Monroe and the Dr. Francis Monroe Hammond papers [Written paper]

Archival Collection: MSS 0156 Dr. Francis Monroe Hammond papers

Wania Shabee is in her second semester, pursuing a degree in Biology. Her project looks at Dr. Francis Monroe Hammond's papers, who was the first black faculty member here at Seton Hall. Her paper primarily focuses on his contributions to academia, diplomacy, racial injustice, and improving intercultural, and interregional connections.