Student research forms a core component of Digital Chicago: Unearthing History and Culture. Students have the opportunity to work one-on-one with one of our Chicago Fellows as a Chicago Fellows Research Assistant, or to assist the work of the grant more generally as a Digital Chicago Research Assistant. Each summer, our student researchers gather as a group to share notes and resources, and during the school year as well, many students continue their work with a faculty member or with the grant’s planning team. 
Nick Banks ’16 offered videography assistance to Digital Chicago, helping to insert new title cards for Don Meyer’s Max Wants a Divorce as well as taking videos of the recording session.
Sydnie Bivens ’17 assisted professor of music Don Meyer in summer 2015 as his Chicago Fellows Research Assistant. With Meyer, she poured through old movie music in the Balaban and Katz Collection at the Harold Washington Library Archives, and also identified the film at the core of Meyer’s project, Max Wants a Divorce, a film which had been lost for decades. Bivens also created sound effects for the recorded music which has been added to the movie.
Current students, alumni, faculty/staff, and community members all perform together in Don Meyer's Lake Forest Moving Picture Orchestra.