“The DSSF working group taught me that this support system is rooted in trust–I trust that the working group, my fellows, and the larger DH community will critique, guide, inform and inspire my work as they have done in the past”.
The above quote is from a blog post I wrote towards the very end of the 2016 Digital Scholarship Summer Fellowship reflecting on the community of practice I had experienced as a fellow at Musselman Library. Now that the school year has begun and I have been asked to give guidance for digital projects, I realize that my position has developed so that I don’t only have to trust others, but people have to feel like they can trust me. It’s through that trust that I will be able to expand the DH community of practice, especially at Gettysburg College.
When presented with a new field, or a new way of thinking, it is easy to be skeptical of how you will be able to integrate it into your life. I know this is how I felt at the beginning of the summer–my experience with digital tools was limited, my project seemed formidable, I had barely any idea what the field of digital scholarship was, and my summer seemingly included a steep learning curve. Yet, through the community of practice I found in the Musselman Library, Lafayette College, the DH community on twitter, and my fellow fellows, I was able to succeed. Therefore, I think that the most effective strategy I can use when promoting the field of digital scholarship to students or professors is to share my own experience. The effort and time that I put into learning how to use digital tools and immersing myself into the DH community of practice was completely worth it. Not only have digital tools helped to transform the way I think about and communicate knowledge, but I also feel like I can collaborate more effectively to create a dynamic project. All of these values would enhance students’ experiences and challenge them to think in new and exciting ways. The process of introducing DH could begin with sharing my story.
I’m excited to spend the semester bringing more people into the community of practice, and becoming more involved in the community of practice myself, especially on a student level. Sharing my research with other students at Bucknell and learning about their projects is particularly exciting to me because we get to interact on the level of being peers–young people who have the potential to be the future of the digital humanities. Given that everyone will be driven by their own passions and ideas, I have no doubt that my experience will be cross-disciplinary and engaging. The conference will become part of my DH narrative, and I can’t wait to share my experience with Gettysburg.