Author: Theary Heang

As I am writing this final post, it is the last day of the Digital Scholarship Summer Fellowship 2021. Summer has gone by so fast, sometimes I have not noticed that it’s coming to an end. One of the reasons is that I really enjoy working on my individual project, having a daily meeting and discussion with the cohort, and other activities we did that I lost track of time. It was the best summer I could ever asked for because it has not only transformed my perspective about Digital Humanities in a good way, but it has also helped me building a meaningful relationship with a group of people that I have grown to love and care a lot about.

But most important of all, it’s the knowledge and perspective about Digital Humanities (DH) that I have learnt and accumulated over the summer. I remember the very first reflective post I did about what DH is, and how much I understand about it then. Well, over the summer, there are a few things I have come to realize and further understand that I would like to highlight here.

First, it is the application of DH. When I first discover the term “DH”, I had thought that it can only be applied to the humanities field of studies; for example, history, sociology, art… However, I now know that DH can be applied to different field of studies whether it’s social science or hard science. Moreover, DH is highly collaborative, especially between traditional research in social science and application in hard science. I remember one of the speakers who talked about his work creating 3D model and virtual reality of Spanish theater. To make it happen, the project need contribution from history and architecture experts to consult the academic aspect of it, and computer science experts to build the 3D and virtual reality.

Second, it is the life of DH. I understand that DH project is continuous, and there is no end to it. It is just simply abandoned by the project owner. However, what I have never thought about is that some days, all these DH projects will become an archive that future generation would look back on it and says, “that’s old stuff”. It also makes sense that these projects might disappear one day because there is no space on the internet to put it up. That’s when the Internet archive come into play. Have never heard about the internet archive before, I am fascinated by what it does, and how we can make use of it.

Third, when it comes to DH, it is more about the process of doing it rather than the result. The talk by Ms. Quinn Dombrowski about the failure of DH helps me settle with my project and feel better about what I did this summer. Through the whole summer, I have enjoyed the process of doing my project a lot, especially of all the things I learn about my research in general, my protagonists’ stories, my research skills, and the relationship I have developed over the past 8 weeks.

I appreciate everything I have encountered for these past two months, and I am going to embrace everything I have learnt and earned through this process. Until we cross path again, goodbye temporarily, DH and DSSF.

What happened when everyone speaks up and writes about the things they believe in? Would that make them the author of the work? And how are those work being shared in the 21^st century world?

In the past, writing about your belief or the cause you stand for may strictly be confined in a journal or notebook that might not be disclosed. Sometimes, if they wanted everyone to acknowledge what they speak or write, they would publish those work in a form of book or turn it in to the newspaper. However, nowadays, reaching out to the public about your idea or belief, takes only a minute thanks to technology. Social media like Instagram or twitter receive a lot of popularity among people todays, and those are the place where stuff is written and shared. Before, in order to write a paper or academic article, you have to be a high educated person, people or organization of influence/credibility; however, with technology nowadays, everyone can be an author, and everyone can write and publish.

If you have a belief, or new knowledge you want to share, all it takes is a few minutes to write in your Facebook status, or even better, create a WordPress website for free. People are writing and creating knowledge every waking hour, and thanks to that, everyone can find answers to their questions all over the internet. I suppose that’s what I am doing too, trying to create something new that I think might benefit or at least try to answer people’s questions. I am talking about my digital humanity project.

I am thankful that people are creating new contents and digital tools on the internet and made it available for everyone. There are things I read on the internet that are very useful for class and my everyday life. There are also contents, photos, and other material that are made free to use (in public domain), and it has been really helpful for my own educational projects. For example, the photos from the government and archives from newspaper. WordPress and many other hosting sites are made free for users, easy to use, and even are regularly updated. All these availabilities made it possible for more people to go online, and start creating new things, hopefully in a way that can be shared.

However, even though I support the idea that people share their knowledge and voice freely on the internet, I am also concern about the spread of false knowledge and fake news that has been circling the society. As the notion of sharing become widespread, it’s easy for people to confuse what right and wrong, and unintentionally incite society. That’s when the credential and copyrights of institutions comes in to play because different organization give its credibility. Knowledge sharing is important, but so is its credibility, and that is why I believe the institution should control their credential, unless the sharing is for the public good and for education purposed.

Grounded on DH’s Value to Independent DH project

My experience working with the Microproject on Albert Chance Collection for the past weeks is phenomenal. I have not only gained a better understanding of the definition and the value of Digital Humanities, but I have also practiced applying it to a real project. It is very interesting to reflect on the theory and incorporate it with a real example.

Overall, I think that our DSSF 21 cohort have done a very good job at the application of Albert Chance Collection into a digital project. In this reflective post, I want to emphasis on three of the DH values that I see in the process of our work on the Micro project, and how I can ground myself to these value in my independent research.

Despite being physically distance and time different, we manage to work collaboratively based on our expertise and responsibility, and finally able to deliver the products on time. Among the six of us in the fellowship, three of us are on campus, and three are doing a remote fellowship, two of which are in different countries and time zone. Through a clear and constant communication, we manage to meet, discuss, and apply our work and expertise into this Albert Chance project. It was amazing to see how we can come together and accomplish something in a short period of time.

Moreover, I have learnt to find and appreciate the openness aspect of the Digital Humanity projects. I remember while we were doing the mapping and timeline for the Albert Chance Project, there are places where he went that we wanted to highlight but we do not have the photos of it (or rather Albert himself did not take a photo of). Therefore, we went online and surf for some photos to use so that the audience can have a better understanding of Albert’s journey. We are glad that there are photos with no copy right/under creative common license that let us use their material for educational purpose. In addition, we are using WordPress, an open-source website hosting that is really detailed, useful and helpful in many ways. Through this openness related to DH, I have come to consider putting my work out there and allow people to use it under educational purposes.

Finally, it was the experimentation value that teach me how to think outside the box when it comes to digital humanity project. When we were doing the Microproject together, it feels like plan was changing every time we have a meeting. It is not a bad thing though. From one meeting to another, we keep experimenting new ideas and digital tools and then think together and see whether what works best. We did something wrong the first time, but it was fine because then we can solve that problem and move on. This experience really put me in a good spot for applying it to my personal project. I do think that experimentation is an important value in digital humanities because it helps direct us to try something new, analyze whether what work and what not, and correct if there are mistakes.

I have learnt a lot working on this Albert Chance Micro project. It gives me a solid foundation on how I should approach digital humanities and what I should do with my individual project moving forward.

Everybody nowadays is using the internet and resource on web for many purposes whether it is to do research, read daily news, connect with friends or attend online classes. Digital resources are very convenient, fast and accessible globally, making it a number one go-to place. Joining the Digital Humanity Scholarship Fellowship, I thought I know what a Digital Humanity is and what I should do to achieve the goal of a DH project, but little did I know that I had a misunderstanding of what DH is all along.

During the first week of the fellowship, I have a great experience discussing the aspect of digital humanity’s definition, elements and values, and explore different fascinating DH projects that was done in the past. Though there are some misunderstanding I have had of what a DH project should look like, being in such sessions have helped me figure out the purposes of my individual DH project and what I should do in order to get started. This first week is full of unique understanding and transformative thought, redirecting my misunderstanding to a rightful path of purposeful digital humanity project. It really is impacting my plan and experience for the whole summer.

With that in mind, my project is going to embrace the value of DH: openness, collaborative, connectedness, diversity and experimentation. In the community of digital scholarship summer fellowship 2021, I am planning on utilizing all the available resource on campus, working with others in the team and library partners, trying out new digital tools and experimenting new perspective of the project. In addition, focusing on the experience of Cambodian immigrants in the US during 1970s, this project requires a global understanding of cultural and historical diversity of the two communities, in which I am going to incorporate into my project. Once built, my DH project is going to be made accessible for people who have interest in the topic, and someone who might need it as a resource for their paper or future project under educational purposes.

To make the most out of the summer, I plan to not only deliver a fully built individual DH project, but also do my best to help the DSSF cohort live and work best together. By being an open communicator, a supporter and an optimist, I will do my best to become someone who is reliable for the others, responsible for her own work, and embrace these learning process through the whole summer. One of the most important expectations is to be physically and mentally healthy, which mean that I should know my limit, take breaks when needed, and especially eat and sleep well. It might be a typical expectation, but it can be hard to adapt, especially when lacking awareness; however, staying on track and being on the top of everything is what I am planning to do this summer. There are more exciting things to learn, and I am looking forward to embracing those experiences.