Type of Culminating Activity

Graduate Student Project

Graduation Date

10-2019

Degree Title

Master of Applied Historical Research

Department

History

Major Advisor

Lisa Brady, Ph.D.

Abstract

This Master of Applied Historical Research project entailed the development and launch of an iOS-platform mobile application that provides an interpretive walking tour of Minidoka National Historic Site (Minidoka NHS). Established in 2001, Minidoka is a remotely located National Park Service unit which preserves one of the ten mainland United States WWII Japanese American concentration camps. With the Visitor Contact Station slated to open in 2019, the site has lacked in-depth interpretation of the history and landscape in a meaningful way, detracting from the typical visitor experience. The accompanying analytical essay situates the process of creating the Minidoka NHS mobile app within the landscape of preservation at Minidoka, as well as examines the existing interpretive framework of Minidoka NHS and the decisions made to position the app within the existing infrastructure in a complementary rather than redundant manner. It also interrogates the role of service-learning at Boise State University within the context of preservation and interpretation at Minidoka with particular attention to the Minidoka guard tower reconstruction project carried out by the Boise State University Construction Management program from 2013-2015. The paper describes the walking tour app and evaluates it and the guard tower project to advocate for the continued role of service-learning in enhancing civic engagement at Minidoka. Through this research I ultimately promote a greater emphasis on service-learning as it relates to Public History students engaged in national parks, and specifically in regards to the relationship between the Master of Applied Historical Research and Service-Learning Programs at Boise State University and Minidoka NHS.

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