Category: Project Charter

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Project Charter

Project Charter – Ana Vashakmadze

  • Project Name
    • Title – First Original Georgian Opera – Abesalom and Eteri by Zacharia Paliashvili
  • Project Owner
    • Ana Vashakmadze
  • Project Summary

My research is about the Georgian opera Abesalom and Eteri by Zacharia Paliashvili (1871-1933) which was premiered in 1919, the year after Georgia reestablished independence from the Russian Empire. This opera was a culmination of a multidisciplinary movement for maintaining national identity which has always been closely attached to and influenced by Georgian musical culture. The threat of losing national identity under the occupation accelerated the professionalization of Georgian music. This research draws upon the political and historical context, the composer’s archival materials in Georgian, and the opera’s music and lyrics to explore the composition as a bridge between different musical cultures and historical episodes.

During summer 2020 I was a Kolbe Fellow under the mentorship of Dr. Marta Robertson. We have worked on the larger picture of the research, including finding secondary sources, having interviews with Georgian musicologists and musicians, observing primary materials from the composer’s museum, and writing micro-essays for the future website. The main challenge was balancing between contextualizing the research and learning new tools for transforming my ideas into the digital world under the mentorship of R.C. Miessler.

Throughout the DH Fellowship, my main goal is to dive into the concrete fragments of the research, after working on the larger picture. My plan is to have a bilingual website: English and Georgian.

The website will have an opening introductory page. The menu will include larger topics at first: “About Composer,” “About Opera,” “Historical Atmosphere,” “Continuum of the Opera.” Each main page will have sub-pages with more multi-media elements, such as maps, timelines, storytelling sections, musical Sections, and others.

The website will start with a wider glance of the topic and an audience will be able to choose the direction where they want to dive in more.

Having a bilingual website broadens my audience globally. I would love this website to be accessible for a person who hears about the opera for the first time as well as for scholars who are interested in more in-depth analysis. I hope this website can become an interesting source for students, faculty, and scholars who could be doing research about this opera, or are interested in Eastern European musical culture and the concept of nationalism in classical music. My goal will be to catch the golden mean, between accessibility and professional scholarly research while building the website.

  • Deliverables
  • Research Question/Thesis 
  • Media Elements: Pictures, Videos, Audios, Score, Posters
  • Secondary Sources: Score, Journal Articles, Books, Maps
  • Primary Sources: Interviews, Letters, Pictures
  • Digital Tools:
  • WordPress/Scalar website
  • Timeline JS
  • StoryMapJS
  • ArcGIS
  • Timeline
Week 1 (6/7 – 6/11) 
1) Meet with the mentor.
2) Collect all the previously researched materials.
Sorting out the ones that are relevant for the DH project.
3) Brainstorming digital tools that I am going to use. 		Week 2 (6/14 – 6/18)
1) Project charter – due 6/18 
2) Meet with the mentor and identifying most of the tools that I am going to use.
3) Work on getting all the secondary materials needed for the gaps.
4) Identifying missing primary sources and communicating with the library/museum.  
Week 3 (6/21 – 6/25) 
1) Wireframes – due 6/25 
2) Meet with the mentor and discuss website structure/show the first steps of using the digital tools.
3) Get those primary sources by the end of the week (museum/local library)
4) Further discussion of the possible copyright issues.
5) Visualization/digitalization of the interviews.
6)Finalizing all the digital sources.		Week 4 (6/28 – 7/1) 
1) Meet with the mentor.  
2)Taking care of possible interviews if planned. 
3) Working on TimelineJS/StoryMapJS/ArcGIS
4) Structuring my website.
 
Week 5 (7/6 – 7/9) 
Visualization due 7/9 
1) Meet with the mentor: discussing what I am missing.
2) Working extensively on texts/translating.
3) Possible digital edits, additions, corrections.
4) Reviewing the topic/thesis.    		Week 6 (7/12 – 7/16) 
1) First project draft – due 7/16 
2) Mostly working on the design of the website.
3) Working on the identified gaps (contextual or technological)
4) Embedding all the separate digital parts into the main website.  
Week 7 (7/19 – 7/23) 
1) Final project draft – due 7/23 
2) Meet the mentor at the beginning of the week: going through the strucutre of the website. 
3) Working on all the flaws and missing parts.
4) Building the presentation/identifying what I need to work on/polish.		Week 8 (7/26-7/30) Presentation 
1) Any final edits/should be mostly technological.
2) Practice the presentation.
3) Meeting with my mentor to overview the whole experience and future possibilities for the project.  
 
  • My goal is to have a finalized version of this project by the end of the fellowship. However, I would love to go back to it from time to time as I keep growing as a scholar and musician. Taking into consideration the importance of this opera in today’s Georgian musical reality, I hope, the project is going to have a long lifespan. It would be amazing if other scholars get interested in the topic and the opera itself and they will be willing to contribute or collaborate with the initial project.

Written by Ana Vashakmadze ’22, Student at the Sunderman Conservatory of Music, Gettysburg College, part of the DSSF Summer ’21 wonderful Cohort.

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Project Charter

Project Charter

Project Name: Lilith Through the Times: Demoness to Feminist Icon

Project Owner: Shukirti Khadka

Summary: The project will trace Lilith’s journey in scriptures, literature, and art from ancient Babylonia to the 19th century. Presenting Lilith as the perennial symbol of patriarchal narratives written by men, this project will trace her journey throughout history to see her transformation from a demoness who killed infants and the women who bore them to a feminist icon who has become a symbol for autonomy, sexual choice, and control of one’s own destiny.

The project will be presented in a website created through WordPress, and will include a timeline tracing Lilith throughout the years. The website will include an About menu, with an ‘About the Project’ and ‘About Lilith’ page. Under a Lilith menu, pages such as ‘Lilith in Ancient Texts’, ‘Lilith in Art and Culture’, ‘Lilith Transformed’, etc. will be available. These will elaborate on the different time points on the timeline. The website will also include a Sources menu, wherein the Bibliography and Documentation page can be seen.

My potential audience would be faculty, students and scholars interested in college research, digital humanists, people who are interested in Jewish culture, and women.

Deliverables:

What I have:  

  • Primary sources and secondary sources 
  • Research Topic 
  • Research question 
  • Basic wireframe of the website
  • Points in the Timeline

What I need:  

  • More secondary sources  
  • Website using WordPress 
  • Timeline using Timeline JS 
  • Organized structure of the website (number of pages, menu names, fonts, etc.) 
  • Images (20)

Timelines:

 Week 1 (6/7 – 6/11)
Organize previous research Search for images		 Week 2 (6/14 – 6/18) 
Project charter  
Search for more images
Look for more secondary sources
Basic outline of the Timeline
Finalize website structure
 Week 3 (6/21 – 6/25) 
Wireframes 
Try to confirm dates of all events Make Timeline JS  
More images
Finish text for Lilith info		Week 4 (6/28 – 7/1) 
Create a website using WordPress Color, text, Font More images
Week 5 (7/6 – 7/9) 
Visualization due 
About text, sources bibliography, and Documentation page finalization
Make sure everything works smoothly  		 Week 6 (7/12 – 7/16) 
First project draft    
Week 7 (7/19 – 7/23) 
Finishing touches: editing, color, Font, background, placement.
Final project draft   		Week 8 (7/26-7/30) 
Practice presentation    Presentation 
 

End of Life/Future Plans: This work is a ‘project’ that can extend for a long period of time and be taken in different directions. Lilith’s story spans across time, and she is reimagined continuously. Further work can go into detail about Lilith’s story in relation to Eve and women in the Bible or Jewish Mythology who have similarly been demonized. Lilith’s story can be explored further in terms of her influence on Jewish Feminism (especially during the Second Wave of Feminism), her characterizations in pop culture, etc. There is much scope for evolving this project.

Written by Shukirti Khadka, Gettysburg College Class of 2024, and part of the DSSF 2021 Cohort.

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Project Charter

Project Charter _ Theary Heang

Project Name: Cambodian refugees in the 1980s: “a story of struggle, early experience and resettlement in the US”

Project Owner: Sokuntheary Heang

Project Summary:

This project aims at exploring the Cambodian Refugees’ resettlement experience in the US during the period of 15 years from 1975 to 1990.

After the Cambodian civil war from 1970 to 1975, followed by the genocide which was led by communist government from 1975 until 1979, Cambodia suffered greatly, and hundreds of thousands of people flee the country to Thailand border, finally settling in different countries in Europe and the United States. Approximately more than 150,000 people arrived in the US from 1975 to 1994, and little was known about their experience in this new country, their life transformation, and their resettlement here in the US.

With that in mind, this project is going to explore the Cambodian Refugee’s resettlement experience through an interactive website which consist of different digital story-telling tools. First of all, with many events goings on, this project is going to look at the history through the lens of Newspaper article, using Timeline digital tools to display the events in chronological order with summaries of the news itself and a short analysis on the events. Secondly, this project also aims at collecting and studying various refugee camps in the US existed during the time and visualize them on a digital map. Thirdly, diving into the experience of refugees, this project will illustrate the refugee’s resettlement experience through feature storytelling, interview, and archive photos, should they give their permission to publish.

The first target audience for this project are Cambodian-American students, teenagers, daughters and sons of the former Cambodian refugees, who want to understand and learn about the Cambodian history, and the experience their people or family went through during the civil war and resettlement times. Other target audiences are university professors, student who interested in the topic, researchers or archivists who want a brief overview of this topic.

Deliverables:

  • Scholarly Content: History content about Cambodian civil war and Cambodian refugees in the US, and Content from a book called “Unsettled: Cambodian Refugees in New York City Hyperghetto”
  • Primary Source: Newspaper Archives (in form of image) from the Musselman Library, Information about the Refugee Camps from a US government website (Ex: Library of Congress), Interview information (in form of audio, video and text transcription) with my protagonists, Some archive photos or others from my protagonists.
  • Secondary Source: Some archive photos from the online website and the Cambodian Community
  • Digital Tools: Timeline JS, ArcGIS Story Map, WordPress/Scalar

Timeline:

Week 1 (6/7 – 6/11)   

– Finalized the Research Questions  
– Meet and discuss the project with Library Partners  
– First reflective essay  
– Located and get the book “Unsettled …” and other resource on Cambodian History 		Week 2 (6/14 – 6/18)   

– Located all the digital items I can use  
– Collect information about my primary protagonist and reach out to them
-Draft of the project charter  
– Finalized Scope of the project  
– Final Version of Project charter  
Week 3 (6/21 – 6/25)   

– Should really done reaching out to the protagonists
– Maybe do the interview with them
– Determine the important date and events happened to prepare to look at Microfilms
– Ask Library partner to help with the Microfilms
– Draft the wireframe  
– Wireframes Due 		Week 4 (6/28 – 7/1)     

– Compile the microfilm and do the metadata and summary
– Determine the Refugees camps in the US in 1980s
– Should do or be done with the Interview with the protagonist
– Research and write the Historical Context of the Cambodian Immigrants (for the website)
– Collect archive and compile them (if protagonist allow)
Week 5 (7/6 – 7/9)   

– Do the Metadata for the Refugees camps across the US in the 1980s
– Summary and information about the camps
– Start writing the Feature stories of my protagonist.
– Compile and collect all the data and metadata for my project
– Visualization Draft  
– Visualization due   		Week 6 (7/12 – 7/16)   

– Finalize the Feature story telling
– Ready to build the website and start adding things online since I have the visualization already finalized 
–First project draft due  
Week 7 (7/19 – 7/23)   

-Edit and revise my project draft
– Make sure the Credit and Bibliography page is good to go
– Final Project due		Week 8 (7/26-7/30)   

– Prepare for the presentation
– Presentation of the final project
 

End of Life plans:

Once the summer is over, the project is not. It is an on-going project, and I will work on it to tell more stories of the Cambodian refugees and their early experience in the United State. Ultimately, I want this project to be a place of memories, where the Cambodian-American can go to and add their stories in the website directly, increasing the availability and accessibility to the public.

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Project Charter

Project Charter- Nicole Parisi

Title:

Comedic Timing: The Evolution of 20th Century American Comedy

Project Owner:

Nicole Parisi

Summary:

This project will be an exploration of how comedy has evolved in the United States in the 20th Century, spanning from early Vaudeville acts, to radio, to modern day sitcoms. This project will explore how technological advances and social norms made it a requirement for the fast moving industry to progress. Through observing and analysing old comedic acts, scripts, recordings, performance notes, etc., this project should act as a timeline to the ever changing style of entertainment.

Questions to consider:

  • How has the advancement of technology allowed for comedians to expand their platforms over the last century?
  • What national and global events had an impact on the comedic style and humor of its respective generation?
  • How has comedy had an impact on our pop culture and society and vice versa?

Deliverables:

  • Primary sources (Ideally at least one per decade to showcase comedy standards for each respective time period), this could include
    • Recordings (Audio or Video)
    • Scripts
    • Performance notes
    • Reviews
    • Comics

Note: Will probably have to explore other college library collections for certain primary sources. Will need copyright license for certain images (things posted on YouTube from a show/channel/artist’s channel will most likely be okay and everything published before 1926 is in the public domain, which means mid century primary sources will most likely be the most difficult to adapt into webpage)

  • Secondary sources (this could include)
    • Articles
    • Essays
    • Books
    • Documentaries?
  • Timeline JS (to explore the topic on a chronological context)
  • WordPress (most likely)
  • Domain on Gettysburg sites (already done)

Timeline (by weeks):

  1. Research/ Reflective post #1
  2. Project Charter due/ One chapter of The Comedians book per day/ +3 Primary sources
  3. Connect to library about resources in Special Collections/ Explore other college’s collections/ +3 Primary sources/ Wireframes due/ Reflective post #2
  4. Begin WordPress page and timeline/ Expand or narrow research as needed
  5. Continue WordPress and timeline/ Sort out any copyright issues that are not already settled/ Visualization due/ Reflective post #3
  6. Continue wordpress and timeline/ Clean out whatever issues I may have with copyright/ First draft due
  7. Revise and edit/ Finish any last minute issues/ Final draft due
  8. Presentations/ Reflective post #4

End of life plans: As the theme of this project is based in evolution of performance, this website could have the potential to be updated in the future as comedy continues to evolve.

Categories
Project Charter

Project Charter

Project Name

  • “The Blood of Patriots and Tyrants.”

Project Owner

  • Ben Johnson

Project Summary

  • Even in an increasingly digital age where much is recorded, there are few events which will undoubtedly transcend time and remain forever in our collective consciousness as U.S. citizens. One such event was the raid of the U.S. Capitol building which occurred on January 6th, 2021. This project will conceptualize the events of January 6th, 2021, within the framework of the relationship between reactionary politics and veterans. A core research question that I will seek to answer through primary and secondary source research, digital timelines, storytelling, and text analysis is: What drives individuals who promise to preserve and protect the U.S. Constitution to change course and challenge the legitimacy of their government once they leave the service? This project will uncover the importance and consequences of veteran political activity, and what compels these individuals to take such action. I will briefly explore the history of such activity in the United States and complicate our understanding of why these veterans take such a dramatic step.

Deliverables

  • WordPress/Scalar
  • Timeline JS  
  • StoryMapJS/ArcGIS
  • Primary and secondary sources
  • Maps 
  • Images such as photographs and prints 
  • Government documents on the January 6th raid of the U.S. Capitol 

Timeline

Week 1 (6/7 – 6/11)  Meet with mentor to discuss plans for the summer. Continue to compile resources for the project. Explore digital tools which I will plan to utilize.  Week 2 (6/14 – 6/18)  Project charter due. Consolidate sources which explore the January 6th U.S. Capitol raid in detail.  Meet with mentor to discuss progress and steps to take.  
Week 3 (6/21 – 6/25)  Wireframes due. Meet with mentor to discuss the digital tools that I will implement. Week 4 (6/28 – 7/1)  Have a competent understanding of the digital tools to be utilized. Continue to gather the sources I will use in the project. Meet with mentor to discuss next steps.    
Week 5 (7/6 – 7/9)  Visualization due. Work on completing timeline and map(s) for my website. Meet with mentor to discuss the layout of my website as well as the progress of my work using the digital tools.    Week 6 (7/12 – 7/16)  First project draft due. Meet with mentor to discuss improvements on my first draft. Apply the improvements and be prepared to do final edits.    
Week 7 (7/19 – 7/23)  Final project draft due. Meet with mentor to discuss final steps.    Week 8 (7/26-7/30)  Presentation due. Meet with mentor to discuss the successes and failures of my project.  
 

End of Life/Future Plans

  • This website will serve as a vital resource for my Individual Studies Major capstone project, which will be completed during the fall semester of 2021. I will utilize the sources I have already gathered and the website itself to enable me to integrate the digital humanities into my capstone project.
  • I will market my abilities to do independent research in the digital humanities to future employers to both prove my research capabilities and my technical proficiency.
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Project Charter

Project Charter

  • Project Name
    • “Gettysburg College’s Majestic Theater: A Big Role in a Small Town”

  • Project Owner
    • Carlee Mayo

  • Project Summary
    • This project intends to illustrate the role of small-town movie theaters in communities across America, display the factors that can contribute to their failure, and use Gettysburg College’s Majestic Theater as a case study to examine the examples in which these theaters survive and thrive.
    • Research question: What is the role of small-town and independent movie theaters in the U.S., and what place do they have in our societies and communities? Why have some examples, especially Gettysburg College’s Majestic Theater, continued to thrive while others have been forced to close?
    • Project scope: Throughout the eight-week time-frame, I hope to outline the themes commonly found in scholarly articles denoting the role of small-town theaters; research the instances of theaters that have not been able to survive; understand the forces behind the Majestic Theater’s continued success; and work with Scalar, TimelineJS, and StoryMapJS to present these findings in an informative and accessible way.
    • Project audience: The project audience for my project includes Gettysburg College students in various departments (including but not limited to Cinema/Media Studies; English; Business/OMS; Theater); Adams County community members who have been affected by the Majestic Theater in any way; and other people across the country and the world with any interest in small-town movie theaters, film history, media industries, and film exhibition in general.

  • Deliverables
    • WordPress OR Scalar as my platform
    • TimelineJS
    • StoryMapJS
    • Special Collections sources – need to digitize
    • Newspaper articles (Gettysburg Times, The Gettysburgian)
    • Videos/media/photographs
    • Graphs and charts

  • Timeline
    • Week 2:
      • Visit Special Collections to overview Majestic Theater material
      • Practice using either TimelineJS or StoryMapJS
      • Finish Project Charter by Friday at 9am
      • Research/compile small-town theaters that have shut down
    • Week 3:
      • Work on digitizing/selecting Majestic Theater sources in Special Collections
      • Wireframes due by Friday at 9am
      • Work on TimelineJS of the Majestic Theater history
      • Write Reflective Post #2
    • Week 4:
      • Nail down “Intro to Small-Town Theaters” page
      • Nail down “About” page (sources/creator info)
    • Week 5:
      • Visualization due Friday at 9am
      • Nail down “Competition” section (stakes/examples)
      • Write Reflective Post #3
    • Week 6:
      • First draft project link due Friday at 9am
      • Nail down “Surviving and Thriving” section (buoys/examples)
      • Nail down “Present and Future” section (social media/community interaction w/ submission option)
    • Week 7:
      • Implement feedback/changes/updates after deliberation
      • Final draft project link due Friday at 9am
    • Week 8:
      • Practice for presentation
      • Present!!!
      • Write Reflective Post #4

  • End of Life/Future Plans
    • Towards the end of my Scalar site, I’d like to include a “Majestic Present and Future” page which embeds photographs/videos of community members’ shared content regarding the theater, in addition to an embedded social media (Instagram?) post carousel displaying posts linked to the Majestic Theater via location. This would be an opportunity for the project to be ongoing, as community members could submit photos throughout the years that displays the role of the Majestic in the community.

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