We provide a space for both undergraduate and graduate students to engage in hands-on learning experiences with digital tools and techniques. Students collaborate with peers, faculty members, and digital technology specialists to create innovative projects that go beyond conventional essay writing. This approach not only fosters creativity but also equips students with valuable skills in data mining and visualization, digital analysis and mapping, web-based presentations and storytelling, among many other technologies. LEADR supports a portfolio of digital projects created by students and faculty to share research through visual and interactive means. As part of our class collaborations we support a variety of different approaches to digital methods and projects – you can view a selection of these projects here.
Podcasting Projects
Students use the professional AV Studio to create video and audio projects using the podcasting station and the green screen. Both of which are available to book at leadr.msu.edu.

This podcast talks about the world of Scottish Soccer and the history of the rivalry between the Celtics and Rangers, focusing on the brutal 1980 Hampden Riot.

This podcast discusses what prison was like during the apartheid period focusing on Nelson Mandela and Robben Island

The stories of Johan Cruyff’s life from his early days at Ajax through coaching at Barcelona.
Omeka Projects
Often times students will be assigned a project using Omeka, the class will build a website. Students collaborate withe the lab to build pages with items and metadata so make arguments about historical and anthropological phenomena.

Each project engaged with ethnographic representation by examining critically the historical and contemporary entanglement of the discipline of anthropology and study of, for, with, and by Indigenous peoples.

This project exhibits three countries that underwent military coups between 2020 and 2021, highlighting the particularities of each country and unique outcomes for these coups using scholarly sources and reputable news sources.

This course examines a range of contemporary issues in the anthropology of cities and urban spaces. This Site was built by the students of Najib Hourani’s Urban Anthropology course during the Spring of 2023.

Class project taught by Dr. Ampson Hagan at MSU in Spring 2023 in collaboration with LEADR.

This online exhibition was first curated by students in the course “American Indian Women” (ANP 432) in 2016 and added to in subsequent years.


This website showcases individual student projects on revolutionary history from Dr. Thomas Summerhill’s Fall 2024 class.

This site is a project by students of HST 304 at Michigan State University. Our goal is to relay accurate, and unbiased information pertaining to the Battle of Perryville.

This site exhibits the Battle of Plea Ridge, one of many controversial battles of the Civil War.

This site exhibits the Battle of Prairie Grove. Created by the students of Dr. Thomas Summerhill’s Civil War Era History class during Fall 2023 in coordination with Dani Willcutt.

This site is dedicated to the Spring 2023 HST 305 students’ Omeka Exhibits based on a topic of their choosing and based on their original research.

WordPress Projects
Class websites explore different themes. We can a number of different classes working with WordPress and it is often a good place for professional portfolios.

Photo essays created by students in Dr. Beth Drexler’s Peace and Justice Studies class.

This website is devoted to cataloging and interpreting the provenance about printed books held in the Rare Books and Special Collections at Michigan State University Libraries

This WordPress site was created by students of Dr. Ethan Segal’s Integrated Arts and Humanities class on Science Fiction, Technology, and the Future during Spring 2024 in coordination with Ashley Cerku.
Mapping Projects
Mapping projects can vary, here we have examples from GitHub, Neatline, and StoryMap JS.

This is Indian Country is a digital cultural map of indigenous community issues worldwide.

This project was created by students in Michigan State University’s Residential College in the Arts and Humanities (RCAH) as part of RCAH 192: Urban Renewal

The course, RCAH 192: Proseminar–Malcolm X in Lansing, met in the fall of 2015 to explore how Malcolm impacted the greater Lansing area.

This StoryMap explores the history of the Western Sahara and Morocco border conflict. Made as a class final project for ISS325 with Dr. Macdonald.

This StoryMap explores the issue of the Security Dilemma through the Munich Pact and the German invasion of the Sudentenland. Made as class final in ISS325 with Dr. Macdonald.

This StoryMap explores one of the most controversial borders of our time and the problem of delineating borders. Class final project for Dr. Macdonald.
Scrollytelling Projects
Coming soon!
3D Printing Projects
Coming soon!