The College of Liberal Arts hosted “Innovative Approaches to Research: A Case Study for Social Media as Archives” on Nov. 8. 

The event was a presentation by Assistant Professor of History Cacee Hoyer which urged people to consider social media sites as a new way to examine urban history. Hoyer talked about the private Facebook group, “Grey Street Casbah and Surroundings” which is based in Durban, South Africa and focuses on creating an informal archive that connects urban history, memory studies, and digital humanities. 

Hoyer argued how the amount of knowledge generated on informal online platforms such as the private Facebook group should influence interpretations of our urban pasts.