Michigan Journal of History

I began this project as part and parcel of my becoming a member (and later, senior editor) of the Michigan Journal of History, an undergraduate journal at the University of Michigan which selects, edits, and publishes new student history papers each semester. In addition to the online version, there is also a bi-annual physical publication, typically available in the summer.

The initial site, although not terrible, had originally been designed in Adobe GoLive and appeared to no longer render properly in most modern browsers. Furthermore, it was image-heavy with a sclerotic navigation system that required the production of many new graphics each time a new semester came about. My goal, then, was to provide the journal with a website that could be as dynamic and easy to edit as possible, though—despite my efforts and constant lobbying—the site was never able to transition to PHP and MySQL before my departure. I was also adamant that the new site be standards-compliant and viewable even without CSS enabled.

For the design, I wanted something that felt aesthetically “historical,” while at the same time enunciating a step forward in the journal’s history. As with history itself, then, it was a contradictory affair. The layout’s themes—wood and “scuff”—are intended to elicit a sense of muted novelty, rather than the typical dry and academic (read: formulaic) designs of most undergraduate journals.

Finally, to send the message home that this is a specifically historical journal, I felt that, despite the “welthistorische” cliché, Jacques-Louis David’s iconic neoclassical painting, Napeoleon Crossing the Alps, functioned as a fairly strong representation of “history” as such.

Now that I am no longer a student at the University of Michigan, and hence no longer an official member of the journal, I look forward to seeing how the journal’s website will evolve over the next few years, and to what extent the site’s design continues to hold up over the years.

This website can be viewed at:
http://www.umich.edu/~historyj/