SMR: Student Research

The research of students has significantly shaped the Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation Initiative. Their independent research, using university histories and archival sources maintained by the Booth Family Center for Special Collections, drew the attention of the Georgetown community to its slaveholding past and led to the formation of the Working Group on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation in 2015. As the Initiative has evolved, students have pushed the boundaries of inquiry by raising informed questions about restorative justice, the curriculum, and memorialization.

Georgetown faculty and librarians have played an essential role in encouraging this research. Professors continually find ways of addressing Georgetown’s history in the classroom, during teach-ins, and other special events. Professors have encouraged students to share what they have learned and express their perspective in whatever media they choose. Librarians have supported special projects and gave students a platform to showcase their work.

This page brings together the historical works created by students using the resources of the Library. Students also have played an important role in collaborative projects led by professors and librarians. For more information on that work, see the SMR: Digital Scholarship page.


Facing Georgetown’s History

Adam Rothman, Ph.D., Professor of History and Director of the Center for the Study of Slavery and Its Legacies, has used primary source documents and conversations with GU272 descendants to engage students in his Facing Georgetown’s History courses (offered both as 1-credit and 3-credit courses in the Departments of History, American Studies, and Independent Studies).  His students have produced written essays, works of art on paper, and podcasts. Visit the sites below to explore their individual and collaborative research:

  • The Georgetown Slavery Archive is a collaboration with student researchers who helped identify pertinent documents and transcribe them. The site also hosts podcasts and videos developed by his students that include conversations with GU272 descendants and scholars interested in slavery.
  • The Price of Georgetown: A Walking Tour of Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation at Georgetown University (2020) is a collaboration between students of “Facing Georgetown’s History” (UNXD 272 fall 2019) and the Booth Family Center for Special Collections. As part of the course, students researched the sites on campus and in Georgetown that are connected to slavery. During the summer of 2020, Kathleen Oakley worked with Booth to present their findings on a StoryMaps site.
  • Facing Georgetown’s History through Art is an exhibition featuring works of art created by Facing Georgetown’s History students (2021-2023) displayed in the Community Gallery of Lauinger Library (4th floor) from April 11 through December 6, 2024. Isabel Corvington (CAS ‘26) managed the production of this exhibition with the assistance of Professor Rothman and librarians Mary Beth Corrigan and Beth Marhanka.
  • Facing Georgetown's History through Objects is an exhibition of facsimiles of archaeological objects recovered from the Jesuit plantations. A class visit with archaeologist Laura Masur of Catholic University inspired Jane Beeler (SFS ‘25) to use the 3-D printers in the Maker Lab of Lauinger Library for her class project. The exhibition was on display in the spotlight case outside of Booth from April 11 to May 15, 2024.

Social Justice Documentaries

Bernard Cook, Ph.D., Associate Dean in Georgetown College and Founding Director of the Film and Media Studies Program, helps students create social justice documentaries in his Social Justice Documentary course in the Film Studies Department. He encourages his students to collaborate with community partners, including those representing Black Georgetown and the GU272 descendants. For the work of his students, see Social Justice Documentaries and The Georgetown Slavery Archive – Multimedia.

The documentaries below are examples of the students’ engagement with the documentary record found in the Booth Family Center for Special Collections (listed in chronological order):

  • Naming Reconciliation (2017) raises the issue of memorialization by examining the role of Brother Joseph Mobberly in Jesuit enslavement. The “Mobberly crest” appears above the left entrance to White-Gravenor Hall. 
    By Renata Garcia (SFS ‘17), Sarah Fisher, Claire Nenninger (CAS ‘18), Henry Callander (CAS ‘18), Johnny Monday (CAS ‘18)
  • The Good Work (2017) examines the accountability of the Jesuits, both in the 1840s after they sold people from Maryland to Louisiana and today to their descendants. 
    By Aidan Thomas Kenney (CAS ‘18), Annee Lyons (CAS ‘18), Nicholas McCarthy (CAS ‘19), Jacob B. Steinberg (CAS ‘18)
  • The Curtain Goes Up (2020) explores the hundred-year history of blackface minstrelsy at Georgetown University in Washington D.C.
    By Yasmine Bouachri (CAS ‘21), Clio Gates (CAS ‘22), Gary Simons (CAS ‘21), Xanthia Yerby (CAS ‘21), Lauren Lee (CAS ‘21)
  • With the Promise to Always Remember (2021) highlights the destruction of Black cemeteries in Georgetown, particularly the College Burial Ground on Georgetown’s campus
    By Erin Crowder (CAS ‘22), Aiyana Langa (CAS ‘22), Natalia Wolny (CAS ‘22), Daniela Ilhan (SFS ‘22), Annie Foley (CAS ‘22)
  • This Will Not Stop Here (2023) is a narrative history of the Student Referendum for Reparations written and narrated by GU272 Advocate Miles Aceves-Lewis (C ‘22). Filmed and edited by Professor Cook and collaborators from CNDLS.

Special Projects

The Library has provided individual students the opportunity to research aspects of Georgetown’s involvement with slavery with the support of faculty and librarians.

  • Timeline of the 1838 sale of the Maryland Jesuit Enslaved Community (2019) by Alana Hendy (SFS '21). Based on materials posted in The Georgetown Slavery Archive, this timeline spans a half-century, tracing the initial discussions among Jesuits considering the sale of enslaved laborers in 1813 until the emancipation of those sold to Louisiana in 1864.
  • "Louisa Mahoney Mason and her family" (2020) by Paul Rochford (CAS ’20) explores the family history of Louisa Mahoney Mason, who fled the 1838 sale and worked for the Jesuits at St. Inigoes until her death in 1909. His research paper explored the role of this family as leaders within the Black Catholic communities of Maryland and Pennsylvania.
  • Annotated Bibliography for Maringouin, Iberville Parish, Louisiana (2019) by Julia Beu (CAS '20) provides a list of sources pertaining to the Maringouin, the site of Jesse Batey’s estate (renamed West Oaks Plantation in 1852) where many of the GU272 were enslaved after their sale from the Maryland Jesuit plantations in 1838. 
  • Research on the transatlantic slave trade by Natalie Donnell (G ‘24) who investigated the research, scholarship, exhibitions, and initiatives that relate to the history and legacy of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Her work is guiding faculty as they consider projects using Journal of the Slave Ship Mary, which was donated to the Booth Family Center for Special Collections in 2018.
  • Logbook from the Slave Ship Mary: A New Lease on Life (2019), posted on the GU Library explores the significance of the Journal of the Slave Ship Mary and explores the circumstances of its donation and preservation. The video features Professor Adam Rothman, librarian Mary Beth Corrigan, and Alana Hendy (SFS ‘21); filmed by librarian Barrinton Baynes; edited by Yasmine Bouachri (CAS ‘21).
  • Escaping Slavery, Building Diverse Communities (2019) was composed by the students of History 396, a course taught by Chandra Manning, Ph.D., Professor of History and Director of the Georgetown Institute for Global Slavery, with the assistance of Digital Scholarship Librarian Megan Martinsen. This site brings together 15 illustrated narrative histories of refugee camps and present-day neighborhoods, a timeline, and maps to explore the communities built by the thousands of Black people who fled their owners to seek their freedom in Washington, D.C., and surrounding areas during the Civil War.

Theses and Dissertations

The following dissertations and theses have enhanced the understanding of Georgetown’s role in slavery and its racist legacies.

Student Newspaper Articles (Selected)

From 2014-2016, Matthew Quallen, F ’16, wrote a series of articles on Georgetown's history with slavery for The Hoya using materials from the University Archives. He also served as a member of the University's Working Group of Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation.

Student research and advocacy have pushed the university to realize the goals of the SMR Initiative. These articles report on courses, the University’s reparative efforts, and the ways that students have pushed the boundaries of the SMR Initiative.