Category: Fall 2016

Are you ready for this?

At approximately 0800 hours I left the Culinary Institute of America with my significant other who was so incredibly good to drive me to West Point.

Approx. 0900 hours we got to West Point and we both had to go through background checks and get IDs, even though said significant other was only driving me to the Library (which I later found is no easy feat). But my ID said “Volunteer” whereas his only said “Visitor” so I was extremely proud. If anything tells you how petty I am when it comes to West Point, there it is.

I went to the Library which is absolutely gorgeous, even the statue of Jefferson looked beautiful. It was everything that I had seen in the pictures and everything I dreamed it would be. I had to wait around 10-15 minutes for someone from Special Collections to fetch me and take me up to the holiest of holy places for an American Military Historian.

I was started out with Staff Records but quickly realized that I wouldn’t go very far if I did not know who exactly was in my class. So I asked to see the Casualties of Cadets, which is a record of the cadets who resigned, died, or were dismissed from West Point. This was important for me because I got to see who exactly pulled out to join the Confederacy.

Beside name, they had class number. In the year 1860, my class were considered number 2, which was easily identifiable in the records. Looking at the Casualties of Cadets was actually quite humorous because you get to a point around December 1860 where cadets stop being dismissed and start resigning to join the Confederacy. It was here where I found the most deciding factor in making this project my Senior Capstone.

I found twenty more cadets in my class.

20 unaccounted men with no information other than their name and maybe their state. These twenty don’t have nice put together records like Cullum’s Register.

My map on my site is out of date and uneditable because it’s StoryMapJS and you cannot insert slides which frustrates me beyond belief. Which is also a part of the reason why I am working on a FabulaMap for my site.

But let me put twenty more cadets into perspective.

I started the summer with 34, well-documented, well-known, graduates. Which means I had a cohesive record of where each graduate went during the war and after if they lived, through Cullum’s Register. The Class of 1861: Custer, Ames, and Their Classmates After West Point gave me John Kelly, Felix Robertson, and Pierce Manning Butler Young. And I speculated that James Dearing was also in the class. All four are extremely well-documented officers, most who became generals. So I had 38 men to research, I only fully got through one in the summer.

So.

Five more cadets would have meant that I probably would have worked on this for another couple years.

Ten more cadets would have meant that I have enough to do post-grad research.

Twenty more cadets means that this will be my life’s work and I will live and die still doing research on them.

However, I was too excited at the time I found this out that I wasn’t thinking about the consequence of having 20 more. I was literally so excited to get to the Book of Demerits that I hit my head on the table trying to plug in my laptop.

Most cadets had two pages, Custer of course had four. Looking through the reasons for the demerits was extremely rewarding. When looking at these men through an objective lens, they can often seem like cold and distant figures defined by heroic deeds like Alonzo Cushing. But then you look through his demerits and find that he got one for laughing during reveille, it makes them seem closer, more like people that once were rather than statutes on a pedestal.

I sadly had to cut my time in the archives short since West Point is like the Hotel California. Because if you don’t have a car YOU CAN NEVER LEAVE. Also because I didn’t have a car I had to walk the two miles from the Library to the Visitor’s Center and was again reminded why I did not join the military. But all the taxi services were full, the bus from New York City to West Point is one way, and Uber wouldn’t go that far. So I spent a good hour or so freaking out until one extremely generous and gracious tour guide, out of the goodness of her heart told me that she could drive me to the nearest train station. Her name is Gerry and I’m still in contact with her and I plan on taking her out to a very nice lunch when I go back for future research.

So besides my little scare of not being able to get home after five days, I would say my trip to West Point was pretty eventful and I’m definitely going back, but only when I have the extended amount of time to fully appreciate and submerge myself in research.

-Julia

Coming into the semester working as a digital mentor definitely has come with its rewards and challenges. When I first heard that we were going to work during the semester with faculty and students, I really liked the helping and teaching aspect of the job. I think teaching is one aspect that has been one of the most rewarding of our job as digital mentors. I love teaching others about digital humanities; it is something that I feel passionate about. Whether it is a one-on-one mentoring session or a presentation, it is always rewarding to see people engaged and interested in what we have to say about digital scholarship. To be able to share my passion for digital humanities with others and see the excitement for digital scholarship is one of the most fulfilling things ever. It makes what the digital scholars did over the summer matter.

Although I have not run into any challenges, I think one of the challenges of this job would be pleasing everyone. As digital mentors we want to be able to carry out the vision professors or students have in their mind. But sometimes what we want or can do, can clash with the professor/students expectations. One of my favorite quotes that has been said at one of our meeting is:

“People have this idea that they are going to build a castle in the sky. As digital mentors it is our job to show that they can build a log cabin in the sky.”-Janelle Wertzberger

Funny, right? But true. We do not want to disappoint anyone and the last thing we want to do is turn someone away from pursuing a digital project. So, finding that balance between reality vs. fantasy or feasibility vs. expectations is challenging.

That being said, I believe we offer a unique perspective on digital projects. I am not going to lie; digital projects are intimidating. You do not know what to expect or how your digital project is going to turn out if it is your first time creating one. Digital mentors are able to show what undergraduates can accomplish in two months and that yes, creating a digital project is possible.  We not only show that creating a digital project is possible, but we show that students can create these projects. Digital mentors represent both digital scholarship and students.

Although I have not yet extensively worked with students or faculty, I am excited to start and see what we only discussed in the summer turn into reality.

Best Wishes,

Keira

In the first few weeks of the semester, I had the opportunity to work with Dr. Kay Etheridge on a wordpress blog for her comparative physiology class. I loved the premise–she wanted to use the blog as a tool to teach her class how to write about comparative physiology and science in general for general audiences with varying levels of scientific understanding. To me, this project was a great example of how the digital humanities are not limited to traditional humanities materials–they can include STEM fields as well. Creating an open facing blog meant to pique the interest of and educate a broad array of people about relevant science is just as much a part of the digital humanities as a timeline of student social justice movements.

Most rewarding though has been seeing the fulfillment of our summer plans. For the duration of the summer, we talked about how beneficial the digital humanities could be for classrooms, but it was often in a very hypothetical sense. Our blog posts talked about what potential DH could have in a classroom if  a student or professor decided to use it in their scholarship. To see the actual positive implementation of digital tools and a digital humanities frame of thinking in a classroom setting has been extremely rewarding. It’s also been rewarding to have people come to us with project proposals and questions because it shows that knowledge of the digital humanities at Gettysburg is spreading.

 

One thing that makes digital scholarship blogs different from traditional classroom projects is that they are inevitable more public facing and as such interact with copyright and copyright laws more directly. Conveying this to both students and professors, and helping them to understand their own rights and responsibilities as creators, has been a challenge.
My sense has been that many students and professors think that the cost and energy investment of learning how to use digital tools outweighs the benefits. We, as students, act as examples of people who put in the time to use digital tools to give form to our passions, and we have more than reaped the benefits. That being said, we can also apply our own experience as students to alter the scope of a project, and plan something that is feasible for a classroom project. Also, dialogue between students helps to increase the diversity of projects and how they’re presented because it encourages more creativity in its implementation than a straightforward paper would.

“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.

 

Over the summer, the cohort talked about the idea that the digital humanities community thrives off of collective learning. As we have mentioned before, digital scholars learn from one another. One way I can expand my digital humanities community of practice is by slowly introducing my friends, teachers, and professors to digital scholarship.

After learning about digital humanities over the summer, I decided to contact my high school about what I have learned. I wrote to the principal and president that

“I would like to give a presentation that explains what digital humanities is and discuss the importance of digital scholarship. I would also like to have an open discussion on how digital humanities can play an integral part of teaching the humanities and how digital tools can be used in a classroom setting.”

I was able to meet with the principal of academic advising and present a case for digital humanities.

I was able to give examples of digital projects and tools as well as propose ways these tools could be implemented in the classroom. Because I was presenting this knowledge to the high school I attended, I was able to make digital project suggestions based off of previous projects teachers have assigned me. For example, one history teacher always has her students do these presidential outlines. I suggested an idea that she could use Timeline JS to create a timeline of the US presidents. Each president could have their own individual Timeline to document their time in office.

Overall, I think the meeting went well. The principle of academic advising asked me to send him all the digital links that I had shown him. One fear I had coming into the meeting was the idea that he was going to dismiss the idea of digital humanities altogether. Although I only had time to give him a short definition of digital humanities, he was very much interested and enthusiastic about using digital tools in the classroom. He also said that he was going to schedule a meeting with the faculty to talk about using these tools and asked if I could possibly come back to speak with the faculty about my experience with digital humanities.

One reason why I decided to go back to my high school and talk about digital humanities is because I think it is important to start introducing digital humanities to a high school audience. As we talked about before, DH is not just for academic scholars but rather for anyone who is interested in the field. If we are able to introduce DH at the high school level; the idea of digital humanities would not be so foreign when entering college. Digital humanities may also be seen as a more legitimate tool if students are getting exposed to DH by their teachers at a younger age.

In addition to my high school, I was also able to advertise for digital humanities in my 300 methods class. One of the first assignments we had to do was create a picture timeline of US history. Me being thinking in DH terms, I decided to create a timeline using Timeline JS. When the timeline was presented to the class, the professor noted how he liked to tool but also saw the disadvantages of using Timeline JS. Unfortunately, we ran out of time and were not able to talk about the advantages and disadvantage of using digital tools. But I might visit his office hours to discuss what he thinks are the advantages and disadvantages to using digital tools.

I find that I have become a huge advocate already for digital humanities. I seem to inadvertently advertise DH both inside and outside the classroom… I guess I am a digital humanist… I will be sure to keep you updated on how things go with my professor and my high school.

-Best Wishes,

Keira

Well it’s certainly good to be back at that Digital Humanities game, even though I don’t really know what to do with all these people in library. Not even two weeks in and I got my first mission: to find a digital mapping tool that’s easier than CartoDB for a Spanish 306 class. Finding a mapping tool that’s more user friendly than CartoDB is an easy feat, but deciding which tool to use is difficult. I already had a list of mapping tools that I had experience with StoryMapJS, Google TourBuilder, ZeeMaps, and a couple of other minor ones that I had looked into while trying to put together my own map over the summer. ZeeMaps and TourBuilder are extremely user friendly but lack the narrative and sophistication of StoryMapJS, and StoryMapJS lacks a lot of mapping features that ZeeMaps and TourBuilder have. Taking this knowledge, I decided to feature out to Digital Humanities Forums and sources to find new mapping tools that would hopefully give me what I was looking for.

At first I tried to work with Neatline, a mapping plugin for Omeka. It’s a very intensive mapping tool with an emphasis on the cartography side rather than a narrative, like CartoDB but slightly more user friendly. If I have time I would like to do more with NeatLine, but it takes lots of time and a lot more patience. And then I found it. The love of my life, my pride and joy: Fabula Maps.

Fabula Maps has the narrative and sophistication of StoryMapJS but with more mapping features like animated markers, base maps, and the option of multiple pathways. Even better, it’s extremely user friendly. Even better, it’s embeddable. And the best is that the markers are animated!! So I was super excited to show this to the professor and she seemed very interested by it, so my job right now is to test the limits of Fabula Maps, like how many markers and how much media I can put in before it crashes, if it crashes. I think that Fabula Maps is a great in class digital tool because it has great user experience and very distracting features which can easily capture student attention.

Along with testing Fabula Maps for Spanish 306, I’m seeing if Fabula Maps would be more suited to my needs than StoryMapJS in terms of mapping out my cadets. While it’s not exactly continuing my research I think it’s important to improve upon what I already have, especially if there is a medium that is more suited to my project.

Speaking of the continuation of my project, the service records have been set back a bit seeing as there was a problem with transferring my files onto my new laptop, so I don’t have any of my research files or records from War of the Rebellion, except for the indexes that I have written in my notebook. It’s a loss of research but with my indexes, I don’t have to start from scratch. I hope to have my records done by Bucknell, which I am super excited for by the way. I think the entire cohort is excited. Then we can reunite with our Lafayette counterparts, admittedly not all of them, but enough to balance out the Digtal Scholar Schuyler Sisters.

-Julia