Good Morning All,
This is my first blog post and I am sorry that I waited so long to do it. In the past I have been a bit of a tech phobe. I was inspired to take this course because I am one of those people that likes to challenge myself and learn new things. I must say that up until this point I was trying to figure out how my social work background and now Phd Urban education lens fits in in the digital humanities world. Yesterday’s NYPL lab visit, coupled with the Neatline workshop was when the light bulb finally went on for me in all of this. I have been amazed by the readings, presentations and your visualization projects and kept thinking when the heck is this going to make sense for me.
Aha! I finally got it!
The oral history digital project naturally caught my attention as I have been professionally trained and always innately intrigued by people’s life story and trajectories. Immediately I thought about how I might pursue my digital humanities project proposal as I feel that the communities that are impacted the most by social-political inequities and injusticies are sometimes far removed from data and research theories. To that end, I am always thinking about ways in which all of this great data may be accessible and available to those of us who have a tech phobia or just don’t have the time or the jargonese to read through pages and pages of journal articles, blogs, newspaper articles and the like. I may have found a way. David McClure did an amazing job of explaining the software and its uses and walked us trough the process and I was so excited. It felt like that first time you learn how to ride a bike; that moment when some pushes you from the back and lets go and then you suddenly realize that they have let go and that you are doing it on your own! Yes, that feeling. I am on my way and a work in progress.
Selena and I are working on a mapping project which I will share in a later blog but I wanted to share with you all that I have finally gotten how I might use digital humanities in my work as a social worker, an educator and researcher. Thank you all for sharing of your journey and normalizing the challenges. More to come soon!