This year’s class of Digital Humanities Summer Scholars has been selected, and the students are ready to start exploring both their research topics and DH tools and methods. Research & Instruction Librarian Angela Perkins will lead the scholars, who will begin meeting on May 22. The seven scholars were selected through a competitive process and will complete a six-week internship during which they will engage with Digital Humanities in order to build a research project of their own design.
DH Summer Scholars 2019:
Milena Berestko, Class of 2022,Psychology and Theatre major, intends to research the impact of the Romani people on Polish arts, legislature, and traditions, which she plans to present as an interactive map to show the travel routes of the Romani in Poland, among other data points.
Joseph Illuzzi, Class of 2021, Economics and Policy Studies major/Chinese minor, will examine factors contributing to labor inequities in the eSports industry, and illustrate the historical progression of labor conditions and showcase the highly visual nature of games like Counter Strike: Global-Offensive and League of Legends through digital tools like TimelineJS.
Ren Makino, Class of 2020, International Affairs and Asian Studies major, is interested in using digital tools to map geographical locations of anti-government movements (such as those arising from labor disputes) or anti-imperialist rallies in periods in Japan before, during, and after WWII.
Victoria Puglia, Class of 2021, International Affairs major, will expand on her experience during an independent study in Kapchorwa, Uganda, and further research the gap that seems to exist between political policy and intervention/practice in reality regarding female genital mutilation (FGM), and map the different initiatives being taken by community-oriented organizations like KACSOA and REACH, as well as the police, to visualize where these gaps exist.
Tafita Rakotozandry, Class of 2022, Electrical and Computer Engineering major, is focused on the issue of electricity access in Madagascar, and will investigate how energy poverty impacts the education and future of rural children in that country.
Bec Stargel, Class of 2020, Psychology and Anthropology & Sociology major, will explore how language relating to transgender identities has changed over the past twenty-plus years, and plans to create a map/timeline of the trends in which these words have gained and lost popularity, tracking these changes onto major social events and public discourse.
Aidy Ung, Class of 2021, Civil Engineering major, will look at the ancient hydraulic system of the city of Angkor in 9th to the 12th century Khmer Empire, Cambodia, and learn how the engineers managed the complex water networks to support agricultural activities, in hopes of better understanding how the system remains functional, but is different from modern water management systems.
In addition, Angela Shi (Yu Shi), Class of 2021, will act as the program’s first DH Teaching Fellow this year. A 2018 Summer Scholar, she will assist in class and workshop preparation, develop and maintain the DHSS website, and be available to the Summer Scholars for consultation about the progression of their digital research projects.