I am pleased to say that we applied to Carleton University’s internal Multidisciplinary Research Catalyst Fund for funding to lay the groundwork to transfrom the X-Lab from ‘virtual’ into something much more real - and we got it!!
Who are the ‘we’ in this? There’s myself and Jen Evans from History; Laura Banducci from Greek and Roman Studies; Stephen Fai, Mario Santana-Quintero, Johan Voordouw from Architecture; Monica Patterson from the Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies; Alan Tsang, Ahmed El-Roby from Computer Science; Carmen Robertson from Indigenous and Canadian Studies; Tracey Lauriault and Sandra Robinson from Journalism and Communications; and Erik Anonby from Linguistics and Language Studies.
Phew This year has been challenging, to say the least. At the same time, a virtual lab should be well positioned to handle the challenges of working remotely, right?
Nevertheless, many of our projects moved to the back burner, while our undergraduate members dealt with the transition to fully online education and taking care of themselves and their families. Other things that had been in the process of becoming for some time finally saw the light of day.
Dr. Graham is pleased to announce that the GRF has been awarded to two outstanding History students, Chantal Brousseau and Elise Anderson. Chantal is a second year student with a minor in Computer Science. In previous course work, Chantal has designed online exhibitions concerning the Hudson’s Bay Company and the textile trade, and has done research into the history of women’s dress in 19th century London. Elise is a fourth year student also with a minor in Computer Science.
Dr. Graham is pleased to announce that the Inaugural X-Lab Fellowships have been awarded to two outstanding History students, Vanessa Finney and Lauren Rollit. Vanessa is a fourth year history student with a minor in archaeology, interested in the perceptions of the body throughout history and application of technological advancements as teaching tools for history. She hopes to use this fellowship to gain skills and knowledge in online and digital media that will aid with future research into digital pedagogy.
Members of the XLab are working on a wide variety of materials and topics. This Fellowship is intended to give students an opportunity to work on these projects, to learn from each other, and to be part of the life of the Department of History. The 2019 Fellows will be announced on Friday September 20.
Prerequisites: interest in and desire to learn more about the intersection of digital technologies and history, cultural heritage, archaeology, etc Enrolled at Carleton University; successful completion of History 2809: The Historian’s Craft or similar methods course; a GPA suitable to the student’s standing and maturation as a scholar.
This year, the Graham Undergraduate Digital History Research Fellowship was advertised in conjuction with what Dr. Graham is calling ‘the SimRomanCity Project’. Graham has experimented on and off over the years with the power of modding existing games to play up particular aspects of the past; when he came across a port of SimCity to js/html5 he decided it was time to give it another go! This year’s fellows are going to at least start with this, but in keeping with the philosophy behind the Fellowship, they’ll be free to take it whereever they like!
An Idea It occurred to me that there are many student and faculty digital history projects going on around the History Department, but we do not actually speak to one another formally about this work. There are haphazard meetings in hallways and corridors going to and from class, but no real place where people could talk about their work, share resources, hints, tips, kvetch or otherwise collaborate. I thought then I might try to create a virtual space for that to happen; this is the result.