Wendi Manuel-Scott and George Oberle are George Mason University faculty and co-directors of the Center for Mason Legacies. CML is an interdisciplinary and collaborative research center established by the University Libraries and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. The Center's mission is to preserve and examine the legacy of George Mason IV (1725-1792), his ancestors and heirs, and the people he enslaved.

Manuel-Scott and Oberle co-teach courses and lead collaborative research projects with undergraduate and graduate students to explore how the ongoing logics and structures of slavery continue to produce inequality in and around George Mason University. With their students, via CML, they produce original research in an Omeka S site after scouring local archival repositories and connecting with local knowledge keepers and elders. Manuel-Scott, Oberle, and their students will discuss their prior successes on digital public history projects such as the 2017 project Enslaved Children of George Mason, their 2021 project Black Lives Next Door, a co-taught course also titled Black Lives Next Door, and ongoing spatial and oral history research efforts. They will also discuss how they empower students to engage anti-racist research methodologies and complete fieldwork based on original research questions that center Black life.