COMM Students Bring UMD’s "Weird" History to Life

COMM students partner with UMD Special Collections to curate "Keep Maryland Weird" exhibit in Hornbake Library

The opening reception for the "Keep Maryland Weird" exhibit on Wednesday, Sept. 30 highlighted a semester’s worth of archival work by students in COMM458M: Rhetoric, Memory, and Culture, taught by Dr. Carly Woods, Associate Professor in the Department of Communication. 

Dr. Carly Woods and Felicity Dogbatse 

The exhibit, which features items from the University Archives between the 1970s and 1990s, invites viewers to "consider the many ways that Maryland faculty, staff, and students of the past expressed weirdness in its various senses."

At the Hornbake Library reception on Wednesday, Dr. Woods explained that the class first studied memory projects created by others, and then were able to create their own collaborative memory project by curating the exhibit. Across eight visits to Hornbake’s special collections, students honed their research, design, and narration skills while sifting through historical artifacts.

Students initially considered curating an exhibit on student activism or third spaces on campus, but they found an overarching thread of “weirdness” after digging through boxes of historical materials. "Students were excited by the seemingly strange artifacts they came across from the 1970s through the 1990s, imagining what it must have been like to be a Terp back then," Dr. Woods said during her remarks. "But we also want to emphasize here that our invocation of the ‘weird’ in this exhibit also encompasses the way that we were inspired by students of the past who seized their own destinies as they made their voices heard on campus, especially when that meant creating physical and discursive spaces that acted against the grain."

That spirit is reflected across the exhibit, which highlights alternative student publications, campus folklore, the student-initiated Maryland Food Co-op, and quirky institutional campaigns.

Felicity Dogbatse, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Communication, curated a section on "I'd Rather Be Studying," a 1980s campaign launched to counter UMD’s reputation as a “party school.” Her display features the cartoon that kicked off the campaign alongside a t-shirt, purse, and exam book.

"When people think of special collections, they might think of old papers," Jenny Schollaert, Outreach and Engagement Librarian in Special Collections, said. "Absolutely we have old papers, but we also have t-shirts, journals of meeting minutes, photos of Tim Curry that were used to advertise [a curry dish] at the Food Co-op. We have a lot more that can be activated in an exhibit, an instruction session, or an event."

Reflecting on the hands-on curation process, student curator Ariel Griffith shared what it was like to transform archival research into a public exhibit. "It's really not easy," Griffith said. "There are so many artifacts to go through. We could include so much, but we don't have that much space." As such, the curators prioritized artifacts that they thought visitors would find most engaging as they interacted with the exhibit.  

Ariel Griffith and Felicity Dogbatse

The collaborative effort was supported by Schollaert, University Libraries Preservation Department faculty Mark Coulbourne and Kirsten Elliott, and student assistants Belane Ayelework, Melanie Pincus, Divya Vashisht, and Willow Whitaker.

The "Keep Maryland Weird" exhibit is currently on display in the Hornbake Library Lobby through December 11, 2026.