Reflections – Page 3 – Digital Scholarship Summer Fellows 2021

DH Values & Our Microproject

Post author By Carlee Mayo
Post date June 27, 2021
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It is incredible to realize that we’ve finished 3 out of 8 weeks for DSSF21 already. On one hand, due to the sheer amount that we have learned – from programs and virtual tools to tips on data visualization and copyright laws – it feels like we’ve been working for much longer than three weeks! However, on the other hand, since every day has been chock-full of information, it’s gone by more quickly than I ever anticipated.

Admittedly, a good chunk of the time has been spent working as a cohort on our microproject. Working on the Albert Chance Collection in Musselman Library’s Special Collections has honestly been a privilege, as well as a fun experience overall.

Before I dig deeper into this experience, I’m going to list the Digital Humanities values (as outlined in a book chapter by Lisa Spiro, called “This is Why We Fight: Defining the Values of the Digital Humanities“):

-Openness
-Collaboration
-Collegiality and connectedness
-Diversity
-Experimentation

I have found that much of the experience has fallen under various combinations of multiple of the aforementioned values; as an example, our first steps into the DH world have taken a huge mixture of both experimentation and openness, especially because this microproject is our first attempt to use many of the tools we’ve been taught.

I am immediately struck by a couple overall takeaways in regards to the experience working together on the microproject; first and foremost, I would point out the flexibility that this collaboration has required. From the very first week, when we were still standing on baby-legs and hadn’t even determined the overall narrative structure for the project – the story we wanted to tell – we had to work out the best ways for open and consistent communication.

With half the cohort off-campus (3 students), and the other half on-campus (3 students), plus members in completely different time-zones, it took a lot of flexibility on everyone’s part in determining how this project would be developed and shaped. I was – and am – proud of the work we accomplished since then, and the responsibility that each member has adopted for their tasks.

In addition, I am also encouraged by the encouragement and support – collegiality and connectedness – that we have consistently received from the wonderful library team. Every step of the way we had a support system to help, from digitizing some extra Albert Chance content that we discovered in Special Collections to fixing HTML bugs in the sometimes-wacky WordPress.

These experiences working on the microproject have given me valuable insight and practice for my own personal project. I have been able to engage with programs and practice with them, which will make it easier when I use them later. I’ve also gleaned experience in receiving feedback and responding to constructive criticism in positive ways.

Overall, I feel confident and ready to tackle my own project, thanks to the library team, my cohort, and how we’ve embraced the DH values in all our work together.

Cheers,
Carlee

Wireframes

Wireframe

In the spirit of ‘Digital’ Humanities, I decided to make a wireframe digitally.

This is the general layout of my homepage. There will be a horizontal navigation panel, a search bar, a timeline preview, and contact information. The text will be very brief, and will give a preface about the project.

There will be two pages under the About menu. In the ‘About this Project’ page, I will be writing about how I came across Lilith, how I came up with the idea, and will contain information about the DSSF. In the ‘About Lilith’ project, I will introduce Lilith.

Next, there will be a Lilith menu that will contain pages such as ‘Lilith in Ancient Texts’, ‘Lilith in Art and Culture’, ‘Lilith Transformed’, and ‘More resources’. These pages will elaborate further on the different slides of my timeline for people who want more context than that provided by the brief timeline slides. Anchor tags placed on the slides will directly link to paragraphs in this section.

Since the Timeline is the central focus of my project, it will be occupying the entire page. Each slide will give an option to the audience to learn more. These will be linked to paragraphs providing more details about the events in the timeline.

Lastly, the sources menu will provide the Bibliography, Documentation, and information about me, the author.

This project is a work in progress, and as such the wireframes may/will undergo changes as I start making the web pages.

Created by Shukirti Khadka, Gettysburg College Class of 2024, and part of the DSSF 2021 cohort.

Wireframes

Wireframe _Theary Heang

The Project “Cambodian refugees in the 1980s: “a story of struggle, early experience and resettlement in the US” will be using WordPress as a host website. In the website, below are the theme/or a flow chat of content for the Project:

This is a wireframe for home page, and other menu that exist on the website:

These are some plan of the website. Some adjustment might be made as the website itself was built.

Theary Heang’ 24

Wireframes

For my Wireframes I got to put my ideas onto a chalkboard to visualize and organize them.

The whole chalkboard, detailed images to follow. Organized chalk design at the top and disorganized chalk arrangement at the bottom.

Originally, I was leaning towards the blog option that I could’ve had with WordPress. However, I decided that the evolution of comedy could either be observed chronologically (the order in which everything is happening), or technologically (stage, radio, television), so I thought it would make sense to use Scalar’s “Choose your own adventure” style of navigation.

There is still room for changes after these wireframes, but it was great to look at what I need to do.

After the homepage, users can travel right to the about page.

This will take users right to documentations and then the timeline.

From the timeline, users will have the opportunity to look at different areas of comedy. These areas will be split into 3 main sections (Stage, Radio, Television). The starting point will be Vaudeville (Stage).

Wireframes for Vaudeville and Stand up parts.

It will take some more time (and room on the chalkboard) to figure out exactly which directions the navigation will take the users, so that they can still see every page, but the Vaudeville launching point should be able to direct users to the next step in the Stage category (Stand up) or the next historical and technical focus (Radio).

If users want to complete the Stage section before moving on, they can explore up until the Improv page, and then be directed right to Radio.

Wireframes of the overview of the television section, Sitcoms, and the beginning of the Late Night wireframes.

Wireframes for Late Night and Variety in the Television section.

There is still some fine tuning to be done with this layout. Orange post its represent either a tool that I will need to use (in this case navigational components of Scalar and Timeline JS) or additional resources (e.g.: if I want to show two video examples on a page instead of one). While they are not seen in this pictures, I will still need to include my attributions and properly credit my images, videos, and audio recordings used for this project. While I can still re-evaluate the pacing of my “Choose your own adventure” technique, these will be the main pages I am using.

Created by Nicole Parisi, Gettysburg College Class of 2023 and member of the DSSF 2021 Summer Cohort.

Wireframes

For my project (working title “Gettysburg College’s Majestic Theater: Big Role in a Small Town”), I intend to use Scalar to host my website.

Because Scalar is organized like a book, with “chapters” that move in a certain direction, I have created an overview wireframe with arrows pointing in the direction that viewers will be experiencing the website:

As you can see, my current plan is to have six overall pages (a number which could very easily change as certain sections change) that all build off of the previous page.

First and foremost will be my title page. It is very simple, featuring a large image of the Majestic Theater, a title, and a “continue” button.

The next page will be an introduction to small-town theaters and a brief history of the Majestic Theater in Gettysburg, PA. It will also feature a VoyantTools wordcloud to help introduce the “vibes” around small-town theaters.

Next will come a page explaining the major competitors that movie theaters have faced throughout the decades, as well as some graphs/charts to visualize data surrounding movie-going and theater locations. If I can locate the data, I’d like to include a StoryMapJS mapping out small-town/historical movie theaters that have closed.

The fourth page will be a positive page noting the success behind the Majestic Theater and small-town theaters overall, with a special focus on the renovation done to the Majestic, followed by the embodiments of the four themes that are all in common with the roles of small-town theaters.

The fifth page will visualize the present and future of the Majestic Theater in an attempt to keep the website/project relevant as time passes by. It will feature a collage of patrons’ reflections, photos, comments, and notes. I would also like to include an RSSfeed of the Majestic Theater location on social media (Instagram? Facebook?) for an element that will always remain fresh and new.

The final page will be a generic “About the Project” page, featuring some final conclusions/thank-yous, the sources I used, and a small bio about myself.

And…that’s all she wrote, folks! Those are the current wireframes for my project. I’m sure things will need to be adjusted as new data surfaces, some plans become irrelevant, and expectations shift and mold. At this point, though, I’m able to use these as visualizations in the skeleton phase of building my project. Thanks for checking out my wireframes!

Cheers,
Carlee

Wireframes

Wireframe

To construct my wireframe, I decided to go back to the basics of pen and paper. The purpose of my wireframe was to organize my ideas, tools, and website into an easily-understood medium. By the time I am ultimately done with the project, I want my data and visualizations to reflect clarity. I will utilize WordPress to create my website, and I will divide my website into the following pages: Introduction (to be renamed later), Theme 1 (to be renamed later), Theme 2 (to be renamed later), and the About page. The following four images outline my four respective pages.

This wireframe was created by Ben Johnson, Gettysburg College Class of 2022 and member of the DSSF 2021 Summer Cohort.

Project Charter

Project Charter – Ana Vashakmadze

Post author By Ana Vashakmadze
Post date June 19, 2021
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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.

Tags Abesalom, DH, DSSF, Music, Opera, Paliashvili, 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 19^th 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.

Tags Digital Humanities, Jewish mythology, Lilith, project charter

Project Charter

Project Charter _ Theary Heang

Post author By Theary Heang
Post date June 17, 2021
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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.

Project Charter

Project Charter- Nicole Parisi

Post author By Nicole Parisi
Post date June 17, 2021
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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):

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