With regret, but also with pride, we announce that MARCH is undergoing some transition as very talented staff members take the next steps in their careers.
Mary Rizzo, who has been Public Historian in Residence and co-editor of the journal The Public Historian, is moving to Rutgers-Newark to become Assistant Professor of Professional Practice and Associate Director of Public and Digital Humanities Initiatives in the American Studies Program and History. In the year and four months that Mary spent at MARCH, her achievements were remarkable. The latest is her success at creating partnerships for us to host an ambitious series of events this coming April 9-10: the annual meeting of Oral History in the Mid-Atlantic Region (OHMAR), which will include training workshops open to students; an unconference for public history professionals, “Telling Untold Histories”; and the annual Miller Memorial Lecture, which this year will feature Katherine Ott, a curator and historian at the Smithsonian Institution who specializes in disability history. These are but the latest of many activities that have brought new audiences to our campus, and along the way Mary has presented at numerous professional conferences and completed her first book, which is in press. She has been outstanding citizen of our campus and a wonderful colleague.
Mary will begin her new job with the spring semester, which makes this effectively her last week at Rutgers-Camden. Although she is leaving, the office of co-editor for The Public Historian will remain at Rutgers-Camden, and after the new year we will begin to work with the National Council on Public History to fill the position. To help with spring events, recent M.A. graduate Joshua Lisowski will be a part-time program assistant for MARCH next semester in addition to the work he does for The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia.
Mandi Magnuson-Hung, who has been promoted to curator of the Wells Fargo Museum in Philadelphia, is transitioning out of MARCH and will work just a bit more in January to help train a successor. Mandi started with MARCH as a student employee and over three years advanced to the position of Digital Media Coordinator and Programs Associate. In addition to managing the very active MARCH website, her work included collaborating with the Center for Fine Arts on the current “Sounds of Camden” exhibition and managing last year’s very successful History in the National Parks conference, which brought more than 100 National Parks Service professionals, including the chief historian, to our campus. While doing all of this, she completed multiple internships and her M.A. in history with distinction. As Mandi enters the next phase of her career, the work of the MARCH website will be taken over by Christian Malatesta, who is enrolled in the Rutgers-Camden Master of Liberal Studies program.
Also continuing their work with MARCH in the coming year are the following Rutgers-Camden students and recent alums: Mikaela Maria, Joshua Lisowski, Scott Hearn, Lucy Davis, and Daniel Marren. As professional part-time staff, we also have Donald D. Groff, who is managing editor of The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia.