What can the public digital humanities be?
Convened by Jim Casey
Center for Digital Humanities, Princeton University
This year, the CDH will convene a reading group to explore the public digital humanities. The group is open to all levels of expertise and particularly welcomes those who might be new to the center in Firestone Library.Each week we will pair an article or a set of brief readings with a notable public project or two. All readings & examples are online, linked below.The group will meet from 12 – 1:20 PM in the CDH – Firestone Library, floor B. Lunch provided.RSVP to Jim Casey ( jccasey@princeton.edu ).
FALL 2017
Sept. 27 – What are the public humanities?
Sheila A. Brennan, “Public, First.”
Steven Lubar, “Seven Rules for Public Humanists.”
National Council of Public History, What is public history?
Example: CHNM, Histories of the National Mall
Oct. 11 – Building Communities
Aleia M. Brown & Joshua Crutchfield, “Black Scholars Matter: #BlkTwitterstorians Building a Digital Community.”
Example: #BlkTwitterstorians
Oct. 25 – Open Access
Kimberly Christen, “Does Information Really Want to be Free? Indigenous Knowledge Systems and the Question of Openness.” (PDF link )
Examples: Dawnland Voices, Digital Index of North American Archaeology (DINAA), Mukurtu, Plateau Peoples’ Web Portal
Nov. 8 – Memory & Monuments
James F. Brooks and Cheryl Jiménez Frei, “Monuments, Memory, Politics, and Our Publics.”
Example: Monument Lab of Philadelphia, (in-progress 9/16-11/19)
Nov. 29 – Crowdsourcing
Mia Ridge, Introduction to Crowdsourcing Our Cultural Heritage (PDF link).
Examples: StoryCorps, Smithsonian Transcription Center, Transcribe Minutes, DIYHistory, Bracero Archive, Scribes of the Cairo Geniza, Old Weather, or any of the many dazzling projects on the Zooniverse.
Dec. 13 – Social Justice & Memory
Jarrett Drake, “I’m Leaving the Archival Profession: It’s Better This Way.”
SPRING 2018
March 14 – Archives & Social Media
Co-leader: Andi Johnson
Jacob’s Pillow: Dance Interactive website, Instagram @jacobspillow, and video playlists.
Redefining Black Masculinity, website, Instagram @redefiningblackmasculinity, and videos.
March 26 – Public DH Seed Grant deadline (no meeting)
April 4 – Changing authority in public projects
Corbett and Miller, “A Shared Inquiry into Shared Inquiry”