Category: Week 5

Looking over the three claims made by the authors of this article, I think my project appropriately follows the guidelines to fit the TransformDH hashtag. When I was first thinking of ideas for my Digital Humanities project, my only goal was to share information the general public did not usually see. I wanted to answer the overwhelming question of why does my DH matter. Thinking about populism and how it has affected our country made me question how it has affected other countries. By researching countries rarely discussed or reported about, I thought that I could give a voice to the voiceless, whether that be suspected criminals losing rights of citizenship or ethnic and religious minorities having to flee their homes amidst persecution.

Transform DH focuses on activism and making knowledge available to everyone. This hashtag believes all digital tools should be used to advocate for political or social change.  My project follows these beliefs by offering perspectives from minorities and people who have been disadvantaged. By sharing their stories, I hope to give them a platform. In addition to this, I also have a tab on my main menu that directs my users to a page that focuses in on getting involved. This page will include news resources that report and share reliable information about my topic as well as descriptions of organizations that advocate and aid those suffering from human rights violations. By trying to spread knowledge and offering my users the chance to get involved in activism, I believe I am following the criteria to transform DH into something more focused on change.

From Week 1 to Week 5, I think my views on what is considered DH has definitely changed. Before, I considered very few things DH. Websites and digital tools were DH, but hashtag activism definitely was not. I was super wary to even consider social media platforms as reliable tools for DH. After reading many articles and attending lunch discussions these views I previously had are very different. I think DH is much looser than I originally thought. While I am still trying to decide how to draw the line to what is Dh and what is not, I think as of right now, anything that reports knowledge or information on a platform openly accessible should be considered DH if it also offers chances for collaboration. I know my views may change in the next three weeks but I hope I am coming closer to understanding DH for what it is entire.

As my project has been coming along, the concepts of the digital humanities has become more clear and understandable to me. To me, the digital humanities are the presentation of information and data in a way that is visual and accessible to all. When relating this definition to my project, I can say that through the use of the digital tools that I use I have been able to present my research in a visual way. With these digital tools, I have allowed for my project to transform the presentation articles and how they are broken down. The possibilities for the digital humanities to be transformative are endless. The openness and diverse ways of presentation are what allow for new and innovative visuals to be created and used for the presentation of information. What makes these specific projects digital humanities or not is still up for debate, but my thoughts on the question has remained the same. Digital humanities and scholarship is any project that has useful and factual information that is presented in some sort of digital way. By this definition, the idea that the digital humanities is transformative only becomes greater. 

I have even taught myself new information through this project. This is information related to the understanding of both the digital humanities and my project itself. By learning digital tools like TimelineJs and StorymapJs, the information I have gathered becomes much easier to understand and breakdown. I believe that in my project and many others, the most transformatie aspect is the transformation of written information to visual information. An example within my project are text analysis visuals. These visuals are all articles broken down and analyzed in a visual way that is pleasing the viewer’s eye and easier to learn and understand. My visuals make a complicated form of the digital humanities, like text analysis, into an interactive and fun way to learn about the details of writing. Another example within my article is my interactive timeline. This timeline takes articles and presents them in chronological order in a way that is interactive with the user. The user can scroll and see the headlines and thumbnails of the articles as they use the timeline. These two examples are how my project can be transformative. My project may inspire other scholars to use visual elements to make the presentation of information easier and more of an interactive thing. 

The DSSF program as a whole is transformative itself. The program allows for this information that students gather to be presented in transformative ways. Programs like this are just now becoming popular, and the general theme of it has spread to other schools in different areas across the U.S. Programs like these are changing what we perceive as learning, which was usually either through visuals or text. With the digital humanities, we can learn through both put together in one project. As the digital humanities continues to grow, I believe that it wIll only become more and more transformative and more inspirational for scholars alike.

In “Reflections on a Movement,” authors Moya Bailey, Anne Cong-Huyen, Alexis Lothian, and Amanda Phillips discuss the #transformDH movement which places social, economic, and institutional contexts of DH at the forefront of the conversation. The article’s focus on social justice echoes our prior discussions and readings which have examined the unrealized opportunities within DH to move humanities studies away from the “ivory tower” into a more inclusive space in regards to race, sex, and economic background. This inclusivity has particularly failed queer individuals and women of color.

With this article in mind, this week’s reflection asked us to consider the following: How can your project be transformative? How can this program transform to change the needs of digital scholars? We discussed during the first day our ideas of what is and isn’t digital humanities/scholarship. How have your own thoughts on this changed?

Considering these questions for my own project, I think that the accessibility of my project meets one of the transformative components of DH. The public medium of scalar means that anyone who wants to see my research is able to without cost. I additionally think that my doing the research is a transformative component in itself. The opportunity for a female, undergraduate student to complete humanities research for the use of others is quite significant when put into the context that much of non-digital humanities research is often monopolized by an elite set of white, men in the academic world. Finally, my project is meant to be community-based, using diverse voices and experiences to explain the evolution of community engagement.

In terms of transforming this program to the needs of digital scholars, from my experience this summer, I would say the program is not meeting the diverse call of #transformDH. I realize that this is not an easy fix as this problem is not unique to the program, but rather is a larger problem with lack of diversity in liberal arts universities. It is notable that this program creates a platform for anyone to create a DH project. Making the program more attractive to a larger audience may be the issue. I additionally think #transformDH calls for greater engagement with the larger DH community. I also realize, however, that the program is limited by time constraints. Additionally, meeting other DH scholars at Lafayette was a great step towards this goal.

Overall, I would say my view of what is digital humanities has greatly broadened in my time with the program. Reading articles, attending the conference, as well as learning from my DH peers, I have seen such a wide range of DH projects that, although have very different purposes, all embody the values of DH. I have additionally become significantly more hesitant to call a project I am unaffiliated with “not DH.” I have found that the beauty of DH lies within the diversity of projects that it can produce.

My project can be transformative by digging out the history and reckoning with some of the negative parts of the past of the buildings I am studying and the organizations that have occupied them. For example with 227 Carlisle Street the Alpha Chi Rho organization is a fraternity on campus, but they have gotten into trouble many times and have been kicked off campus twice before, and currently have lost their house with no foreseeable future of getting it back as a result of their bad behavior. Even though this project is about the house, it can still highlight all of its history of what occurred in it not just the good parts. I can also reckon with issues that are brought up today that occurred in the past in their relation to the house. An example of this is the recent surface of the picture of an Alpha Chi Rho member wearing a Nazi uniform for a Halloween party was discovered. The brother was identified to be a big alumni donor to the College and the campus community had to decide what it wanted to do about that. This can be transformative because it is criticizing the fraternities which support a traditional white male view.

I don’t think that much of this program needs to be changed in order to make it more transformative, because it really gives people the ability to choose a project that interests them allowing a large array of projects to exist. But I do think it could make sure to bring in a diverse array of workshop leaders. The projects that we looked at as examples focused on a wide array of issues, from being based in history to being based on current political issues which is good. I think the most important thing that can be done is to make sure that these opportunities to do digital projects are open to everyone on campus and to make sure it is not only white students making these digital projects.

In the original discussion of Digital Humanities and if it is or is not scholarship my opinion has not changed much. I still firmly believe that it should be considered scholarship and that it is a great way for academic institutions to be more inclusive of people who are typically excluded from traditional academic institutions. It has made me want to do more Digital Humanities projects that look at Gettysburg and the way that minorities are represented within the educational system, like how much of the collection in Special Collections features items that are from people of color or deal with issues of race. And how much of that is used in classes? It would help to transform institutions if they knew the diversity of what they are teaching with.

The purpose of my project is essentially to bring attention to visual novels and try to explain away the negative pre-conceived notions that contribute to their reputation as nothing more than weird Japanese pornographic games. Video games themselves now are not generally regarded as something worth academic study or focus but I believe that this is gradually changing with the release of more in-depth and thought-provoking games. I think that video games as a form of media that people can use to share ideas and express themselves creates a unique and diverse environment for digital scholars. It would also be nice if more people recognized that video games are not only for young boys.

When I started this program my definition of DH was very vague and confusing. Now I understand it as an extensive, collaborative network that strives for diversity and inclusivity when it comes to sharing information in all kinds of digital formats. It is a lot more broad and encompassing than I ever would have expected. I still have a hard time defining it, but I think I’m better at recognizing it. The combination of the humanities and technology allows as many people as possible to have access to information that you can structure and present in so many different ways.

When it comes to the program itself, I can’t think of much that I would change. I like the independent nature of our projects and the lack of daily structure, as well as the workshops. I know that in the past the workshops were a lot longer and I’m happy with the amount of time they take now. I guess if anything I would suggest more widely advertising it, since I never would have known about this program if my advisor hadn’t mentioned it to me. Maybe I’d suggest spending a little more time on coding because I think that’s something that myself and a couple of others struggled with a bit when it came to finding where and how to use code to alter our websites. Overall I feel like I have learned a lot and I wish more people knew about this program because I think it does a really good job of introducing and getting more people involved in DH.