A short and sweet session proposal based on discourse and creation:
I’d like to propose a session where we choose a place of current global significance outside of the United States. Using Google Maps as a window, I’d like for a group to then gather information and produce, in the limited time frame of the session, a google doc ethnography that tries to combine global statistics with real local knowledge and insight (restaurant reviews, local newspapers, local blogs can all be combined into an ethnographic matrix of ideas). With so much emphasis on the global and on the transnational in both literary studies and the digital humanities, this session would be a real test for how these tools can help scholars gather local knowledge and form a starting point for ethnographic engagement with a location.
I definitely hope to check this out. I am tracking a few other issues that might overlap productively, in particular issues around digital life narratives.
This sounds really cool. I think it’ll also help us see where the gaps are in terms of digital information thus far (e.g. Google maps isn’t so great with remote locales, also issues of censorship – North Korea is blurred out on Google maps for example).
I’m so happy to see this. I’m originally from the Atlanta area but don’t have many sclhaorly connections there.As a historian, one of my interests is how we can use digital methods for researching African-American and women’s history and helping people who already have training in those history subfields to learn more digital tools. I’d be happy to share how digital methods have helped me write about the and on African-American and Mexican-American midwives during the early 20th century. I’m located in the Boston area, so my ability to participate in person would depend on my budget.