Today’s Schedule

Thank you all for your excellent proposals! We’ve put together a mostly-one-track session.

Note: Because we are going on a single track, the time points are estimates. If conversation dies, let’s break for 15 and move on. If it’s going strong, however, we can extend another 15.

Vote with your feet! If a session doesn’t work, feel free to take a pause at the round tables, or do your own breakout/new session at a round table.

11:25

Option A: ICA Fieldtrip
Option B: Digital Storytelling (303/Big Screen)

12:30

Lunch & Dork Shorts (303/Round Tables)

1:30-2:30

Ethics, Authority, Consent, Respect, Legitimacy (303/Big Screen)

2:45-3:45

Oral History, HIV & Culture (303/Big Screen)

4:00-5:00

Richmond as Place, Black Richmond, and Gentrification (303/Big Screen)

5:15

Wrap Up / Show & Tell (303/Big Screen)

Ethics, Authority, and Collaboration

Often in DH work we tell stories about people, with data. What are the ethical implications of sharing information that may be sensitive to others? How do we share histories that may be painful or contested in a thoughtful ways? Who has authority when constructing narratives? How can we foster inclusion and collaboration, and avoid objectification and exploitation?

Proposal: Productivity web site

I’m interested in designing and building (or figuring out how to build) a site for tracking projects and productivity. This would be aimed at creative or scholarly writers, but I could see it being used in other ways. Productivity is a perennial problem for writers. Building the right set of tools, reminders, and a light social aspect to it could make this a useful tool for a lot of groups of users, including students.

Session Proposal: Oral History, HIV & Culture

One of the projects I am personally extremely interested in is collecting oral histories to show us how gender roles/identities, feelings towards sexuality (both preference and the existence of it), and overall culture changes overtime. I really want to use this method in my dissertation, eventually, to compare how HIV/AIDS shaped African American’s perception of gender, sexuality and culture now VS. the 1980s during the height of the crisis.

I would be super interested in talking about just this or opening up to talking about the importance of oral history and self-written works by the community are to shaping the “real” or “complete” history.

Some questions I would love to answer:

What are the best ways to collect oral histories?

What can they be used for in something like a written dissertation?

What are the downsides of using stories that have been shared with me and how can I minimize them?

Proposal: Digital Storytelling

I have experience with Sway and Spark as digital storytelling tools, as well as VSDC and Premiere, albeit not extensively. These tools, and many others, can be used to create richly illustrated digital stories along with audio and video, and sometimes interactive content. Stories can be fiction or nonfiction, they can be for teaching, sharing experiences, offering instructions, and much more. Join us, share the tools you know so we can build a list, and bring some media to create a digital story of your own.

Friday Workshops and Evening Social

Hello, campers! We are looking forward to seeing you this coming Friday at Cabell Library! Workshops will run 1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m, followed by a short break, and then a social starting at 5:30 p.m. at Postbellum, a few blocks’ walk away. You’re welcome to arrive at any point between 12:00 noon and 1:00 p.m. to check in, get your badge, and make any last decisions about workshops.

We’ll have snacks on hand on Friday, but if you’re looking for sustenance locally prior to the workshops, check out some local options (multiple with vegetarian or vegan items). Want coffee? Multiple coffee shops surround the VCU campus, but there’s also a Starbucks on the first floor of the library.

All workshops will be held in. Cabell Library, in room 303 (AKA the Lecture Hall). It’s a large space with a divider wall that will be familiar to previous attendees. Please feel free to bring your/a laptop! Look for a little more information on these in the next couple days:

Track I: Concepts, Approaches

1:00-2:50 Principles of UX for DH (Ashley Brewer / VCU Libraries)

3:00-4:50 Google Sheets for Digital Humanities Data/Display (Tom Woodward / ALT Lab)

 

Track II: Techniques, Technology

1:00-2:50 Photography Skills and Principles for Digital (Tom Woodward / ALT Lab)

3:00-4:50 Audio Recording, Oral History, and Sound Project Planning (Eric Johnson, Jessica Johnson / VCU Libraries)

 

Social

5:30-7:00 p.m. Postbellum. We’ve reserved high-top tables in the bar to the left as you walk in.

Saturday Inspiration: Nicole Myers Turner

In just two weeks, we’ll be kicking off the big day of THATCamp New Souths 2018! After Friday afternoon workshops and an evening social, we’ll be starting at Cabell Library, Room 303. The doors to the building open at 9:00, we’ll have breakfast laid out for you to consume while you chat and vote (dotmocracy-style) on sessions, and at 10:00 we’ll get started. After a few brief words of welcome from organizers, you’ll get to hear from Nicole Myers Turner.

Nicole Myers TurnerDr. Turner will share with us a bit about her research and its digital sources and inflection in “Processes of Power: Digital Maps, Race, Place and Religion in the South.” In keeping with the character of an unconference, think more “inspiration session” than “keynote.” What can we do with the intersection of technology and the humanities? As a member of VCU’s History department, her scholarship is an outstanding example of new takes on the South. Among other things, she uses geospatial/GIS approaches in her work on black churches, political participation, and education in the late 19th century, the topic of her forthcoming monograph.

Dr. Turner’s work explores how Virginia’s free and freed people used their churches, conventions and religious educational institutions to define political strategies, gender roles and community membership. The study delves deeply into the limited but extant records of black religious institutions and incorporates GIS mapping techniques to visualize the church and political networks that supported black participation in electoral politics. Through this local study, that incorporates examination of election data, church membership records, and religious networks she offers a social and political history of late-nineteenth century black religion.  Her other research and teaching interests include African American religious history, black transnational religious and political networks, women and gender in history. She teaches courses that explore the intersections of race, gender and class in the African American experience including the African American history survey, and courses on Jim Crow America.  She is also interested in the growth and potential of digital humanities for expanding the explanatory power of historical research.

We look forward to seeing you in two weeks!

Registration Now Open!

We’re very pleased to announce that registration is now open for THATCamp New Souths 2018.

So what is this?

It’s a THATCamp–a user-generated “unconference.”  THATCamp stands for “The Humanities and Technology Camp.”

But this THATCamp has a theme: we’re particularly interested in exploring the point(s) at which technology intersects with social justice, history and society, activism, and the sharing of hidden voices, especially in the modern American South.  THATCamp New Souths builds on and takes inspiration from similar events held elsewhere, such as THATCamp PNW 2011, which examined the theme of technology & social justice.  The first THATCamp New Souths, held in 2014, drew on those themes and added more, which continued in 2016. We expect to draw participants from scholars, students, community activists, and others who study and/or are engaged in social and political action.  Those who are curious about such an approach, or are experienced with it, are especially invited to register.

When will it be?

THATCamp New Souths will be held on Friday and Saturday, August 24-25, 2018.  Details are being finalized, and we anticipate offering optional workshops on Friday afternoon, to be followed that evening by a social event, open to all THATCamp participants, at a nearby venue.

The THATCamp unconference event itself, with its participant-generated sessions and hacking opportunities, will be held all day on Saturday, August 25.

Where is it being held?

In Richmond, Virginia, on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University, in James Branch Cabell Library.

Who should come?

You should!  We welcome anyone with energy and an interest in the humanities and technology. More specifically, we’re looking for those with a particular interest in our exploration of the intersection of technology with social justice, history and society, activism and the sharing of hidden voices in the modern American South. Other participants might simply have a larger interest in the humanities and/or technology. To put it another way: community activists, scholars, library staff, museum professionals, undergraduate and graduate students, programmers, archivists, developers, non-profit staffers, people from the for-profit sector, lifelong learners—all are welcome, whether experienced THATCamper or first-timer.

Please note that we adhere to the THATCamp Anti-Harassment Policy and expect all campers to do likewise.

Cost?

THATCamps are free to all who participate, and this THATCamp is proudly co-sponsored by VCU Libraries and the VCU Humanities Research Center.

Who is pulling this event together?

The planners are from VCU Libraries, the VCU Humanities Research Center, and other units around campus—but really, this is your unconference!

Do you have further questions? Mail us at !

Check back here for more news and information, and follow us at @THATCampNS on Twitter for updates and related content.