Throughout the summer the fellows and working group have often discussed the values of digital humanities. One value that we always come back to is collaboration. This summer has really been a summer of collaboration. I could not imagine this summer without working together. I feel that if this summer was structured as an independent research fellowship, I would have not have learned as much as I have. If I was told find some tools to work with and create a project, I would only look for tools that fit my vision for my site. I would not have stopped to explore anything outside of my own project.
From what we have discussed over the summer, I have learned that digital humanities is a community. I have explored new ways of displaying data and research in a digital form because of our digital community. The workshops and sessions I felt were based on group involvement. For some sessions, we had to look up different projects or research a specific tool and present our findings to the cohort. This alone fostered an environment of collaboration. Some of the projects and tools Lauren and Julia found, I would not have found on my own. These small presentations allowed us to work on our presentation skills as well as exchange information about different tools and projects.
I also found that the lunch meetings greatly helped form our own digital humanities community. We were able to connect with one another as well as our mentors and advisers. We were open to research help and advice and I believe that the working group truly helped us all form and shape our digital projects. We understood that we could not do this alone and that we needed help. Most of us did not really know what digital humanities was or what went into building a digital project.
Lastly, the fellows have created a strong bond over the summer. This bond is both academic and personal. We were able to listen to each other’s research, projects, thoughts, opinions, jokes, and memes. We were able to ask one another for advice on the direction our project, our research, and the look of our website. Lastly, we were able to help one another in almost every aspect a colleague and friend could. We were there for Julia when she cried over the fact the Alonzo may have been killed by his best friend. Julia and I listened to Lauren’s frustration over the fact that Gettysburg students were not really involved in a lot of social movements. Lauren and Julia were there for me when I couldn’t figure out Scalar.
This sense of community does not only apply to our own fellowship. This applies to the entire digital humanities community. I remember R.C telling us that twitter was a great way to communicate with other members of the digital humanities community. If you have a question, all you have to do is send a tweet to the DH community and see who responds. We were also able to work with the students from Lafayette College in many aspects of our projects.
The idea of digital humanities as being a community informs us that its not just a community for those who have the privilege to be a part of it. Instead, it tells us that digital humanities is a community in which anyone who chooses to, can be a part of. To create a digital project you need the people who can code, the people who can research, and the people who can design to work together to create something unique. I believe that we have created something unique over the summer with one another and the digital humanities community.
On another note, the group has been a great community for me, as well. While I have a few groups of DH people I work with virtually, it’s been great to have students who I can talk to about this as well (in addition to the working group as a whole).