Digital History / Public History (American Historical Association: Getting Started in Digital History Workshop)

Getting Started in Digital History Workshop
Jason M. Kelly
Date: Thursday, January 7, 2016
Time: 9:00 AM-1:00 PM
Location: Salon B (Hilton Atlanta, Second Floor)

Abstract

How does the practice of public history change when digital components are involved? How do we shape the digital sphere into a public commons, and expand the practice of public history outward from its physical institutions into virtual spaces? Where do we draw the line between digital public history and digital history in public? We’ll tackle these questions in both theoretical and practical form in this short introductory session.

Links

The Valley of the Shadow

The Valley of the Shadow is a digital archive of primary sources that document the lives of people in Augusta County, Virginia, and Franklin County, Pennsylvania, during the era of the American Civil War. Here you may explore thousands of original documents that allow you to see what life was like during the Civil War for the men and women of Augusta and Franklin. The Valley of the Shadow is different than many other history websites. It is more like a library than a single book. There is no "one" story in the Valley Project. Rather, what you'll find are thousands of letters and diaries, census and government records, newspapers and speeches, all of which record different aspects of daily life in these two counties at the time of the Civil War.

Soweto Historical GIS Project

The primary objective of the Soweto Historical GIS Project (SHGIS) is to build a multi-layered historical geographic information system that explores the social, economic and political dimensions of urban development under South African apartheid regimes (1904/1948-1994) in Johannesburg’s all-black township of Soweto. Soweto (an acronym for the South Western Townships), a creation of state power, was developed to house low-wage workers and to segregate black South Africans from white. The application of geographic methodologies to the study of the anti-apartheid movement reveals the complex spatial dimensions of violence, resistance, and freedom.

United States of AIDS

The United States of AIDS (USOA) is a student-led digital humanities project tied to the Humanities Action Lab of The New School for Public Engagement. We are invested in making the oral history narratives of AIDS activists accessible and heard. Open source applications have allowed us to index and enhance interviews by applying keywords, outlining thematic segments, and embedding additional archival evidence. The interviews used are from the ACT UP Oral History Project and the African American AIDS Activist Oral History Project.

History Harvest

The History Harvest is an open, digital archive of historical artifacts gathered from communities across the United States. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Department of History partners with institutions and individuals within highlighted communities to collect, preserve, and share their rich histories.

Morris Justice Project

The Morris Justice Project (MJP) was a critical participatory project in the Morris Avenue section of the Bronx. MJP participants documented community member experiences with the police through a survey of over 1000 people. After the survey was completed and studied, the group collaborated with the Illuminator—a cargo van equipped with video and audio projection tools, born out of the Occupy Wall Street movement— to share data on an open wall of a Morris-area apartment building. This digital data share served as an open letter to the NYPD and as a space for community discussion and data analysis.

Bibliography

Introduction to Public History

  • Adair, Bill, Benjamin Filene, and Laura Koloski, eds. Letting Go?: Sharing Historical Authority in a User-Generated World. Philadelphia: Pew Center for Arts & Heritage and Left Coast Press, 2011.

  • Burns, Andrea. From Storefront to Monument: Tracing the Public History of the Black Museum Movement. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2013.

  • Glassberg, David. Sense of History: The Place of the Past in American Life. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2001.

  • Grele, Ronald J. “Whose Public? Whose History? What Is the Goal of a Public Historian?” The Public Historian 3, no. 1 (1981): 40–48. doi:10.2307/3377160.

  • Henderson, Amy, and Adrienne Lois Kaeppler, eds. Exhibiting Dilemmas: Issues of Representation at the Smithsonian. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Insitution Press, 1997.

  • Horton, James Oliver, and Lois E. Horton, eds. Slavery And Public History: The Tough Stuff of American Memory. New York: The New Press, 2006.

  • Kean, Hilda, and Paul Martin, eds. The Public History Reader. London: Routledge, 2013.

  • Kelley, Robert. “Public History: Its Origins, Nature, and Prospects.” The Public Historian 1, no. 1 (October 1, 1978): 16–28. doi:10.2307/3377666.

  • Lonetree, Amy. Decolonizing Museums: Representing Native America in National and Tribal Museums. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2012.

  • Meringolo, Denise D. Museums, Monuments, and National Parks: Toward a New Genealogy of Public History. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2012.

  • Rosenzweig, Roy, and David Thelen. The Presence of the Past: Popular Uses of History in American Life. Columbia University Press, 2013.

  • Sleeper-Smith, Susan, ed. Contesting Knowledge: Museums and Indigenous Perspectives. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2009.

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Introduction to Digital History

  • Berry, David, ed. Understanding Digital Humanities. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.

  • Cohen, Daniel, and Roy Rosenzweig. Digital History: A Guide to Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005.

  • Gardiner, Eileen, and Ronald G. Musto. The Digital Humanities: A Primer for Students and Scholars. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015.

  • Gold, Matthew K., ed. Debates in the Digital Humanities. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2012.

  • “Interchange: The Promise of Digital History.” The Journal of American History 95, no. 2 (September 1, 2008): 452–91. doi:10.2307/25095630.

  • Moretti, Franco. Graphs, Maps, Trees: Abstract Models for Literary History. London: Verso, 2007.

  • Noiret, Serge. “Digital History: The New Craft of (Public) Historians.” Digital & Public History, May 28, 2012. http://sergenoiret.blogspot.it/2012/05/digital-history-new-craft-of-public.html.

  • Rosensweig, Roy. Clio Wired: The Future of the Past in the Digital Age. New York: Columbia University Press, 2011.

  • Schreibman, Susan, Ray Siemens, and John Unsworth, eds. Companion to Digital Humanities. Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Professional, 2004.

  • Weller, Toni, ed. History in the Digital Age. London: Routledge, 2012.

Public Scholarship

  • American Association of State Colleges and Universities. “Stepping Forward as Stewards of Place: A Guide for Leading Public Engagement at State Colleges and Universities.,” May 2002. http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED469026.pdf.

  • Andrews, Mary, Robert Banks, Bruce Burke, Frank Fear, Hiram Fitzgerald, Les Manderschied, Patrick McConeghy, et al. “Points of Distinction: A Guidebook for Planning & Evaluating Quality Outreach.” Michigan State University Outreach and Engagement. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University, 2000 1996. https://outreach.msu.edu/documents/pod_2009ed.pdf.

  • Bergold, Jarg, and Stefan Thomas. “Participatory Research Methods: A Methodological Approach in Motion.” Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research 13, no. 1 (January 30, 2012). http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/1801.

  • Boyer, Ernest L. “The Scholarship of Engagement.” Journal of Public Service & Outreach 1, no. 1 (1996): 11–20.

  • Dwight E. Giles, Jr. “Understanding an Emerging Field of Scholarship: Toward a Research Agenda for Engaged, Public Scholarship.” Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement 12, no. 2 (2008): 97–106.

  • Ellison, Julie. “Guest Column—The New Public Humanists.” PMLA 128, no. 2 (March 1, 2013): 289–98. doi:10.1632/pmla.2013.128.2.289.

  • Ellison, Julie, and Timothy Eatman. “Scholarship in Public: Knowledge Creation and Tenure Policy in the Engaged University.” Imagining America. Imagining America, November 1, 2008. http://surface.syr.edu/ia/16.

  • Holland, Dorothy, Dana E. Powell, Eugenia Eng, and Georgina Drew. “Models of Engaged Scholarship: An Interdisciplinary Discussion.” Collaborative Anthropologies 3, no. 1 (2010): 1–36. doi:10.1353/cla.2010.0011.

  • Kasworm, Carol E., and Nur Aira Abdrahim. “Scholarship of Engagement and Engaged Scholars: Through the Eyes of Exemplars.” Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement 18, no. 2 (June 16, 2014): 121–48.

  • Kruss, Glenda. “Reconceptualising Engagement: A Conceptual Framework for Analysing University Interaction with External Social Partners.” South African Review of Sociology 43, no. 2 (June 1, 2012): 5–26. doi:10.1080/21528586.2012.694240.

  • Smith, Laura, Lucinda Bratini, Debbie-Ann Chambers, Russell Vance Jensen, and LeLaina Romero. “Between Idealism and Reality: Meeting the Challenges of Participatory Action Research.” Action Research 8, no. 4 (December 1, 2010): 407–25. doi:10.1177/1476750310366043.