DH Research Development Projects

More information about DH Research (an Initiative of IDH and the Scholars Lab) and the DH Research Grant

Avi Blitz | Assistant Professor of Instruction, Department of Middle Eastern Studies | University of Texas at Austin

Project Title: Voices of Modern Israel
Project Brief Summary:
In Professor Blitz’s upper-division Hebrew course, Israeli Society and Culture (HEB346), students explore modern Israeli life through curated texts and audio materials. To enhance the curriculum, Professor Blitz will use Scalar to create a digital archive of video interviews with Israeli community leaders and politicians. This project, designed in Spring 2025 and executed over the summer, will include structured content for repeated viewing and integration with learning materials. It aims to provide a lasting resource for students, scholars, and the public, offering diverse perspectives on Israeli identity and society.

Lydia CdeBaca-Cruz | Lecturer, Department of English | University of Texas at Austin

Project Title: Remembering to Re-member: Re-existence in Indigenous and Chicana/x/o Performative Literature and Arts
Project Brief Summary:
The project examines how modern works by Indigenous, Mexican, and Chicana/x/o artists reflect these literacies. It aims to engage readers in decolonial ethics and politics of listening and literacy. The manuscript will include personal narratives, family genealogies, and scholarly analyses, and will be published with a Creative Commons license in a digital format using Scalar. This format will allow for interactive engagement with the content, including playlists of recorded songs and performances.
Once the English version is complete, the project will be translated into Spanish to reach a broader audience.

Claire Fitch | Doctorate Candidate, Geography & The Enviornment | University of Texas at Austin

Project Title: Immersion and its Socio-Material Configurations
Project Brief Summary:
Claire plans to use Scalar for the e-publication of a dissertation chapter that explores the spatial imaginaries of contemporary techno-centric capitalism through immersive technologies like virtual reality (VR). Based on two years of fieldwork at VR exhibits, this chapter examines how VR is designed to produce embodied experiences and how these designs manifest in socio-spatial arrangements. By employing geographic theories and a multimethod approach, Claire analyzes the material, social, and environmental relations that create spaces for seamless immersion between physical and virtual worlds. Scalar will help Claire organize and present this complex data in a dynamic, nonlinear, and multimodal format, enhancing the understanding of VR’s impact on spatial and embodied experiences.

Andrea Gutierrez | Assistant Professor of Instruction, Department of Asian Studies | University of Texas at Austin

Project Title: Teaching Textual History through the Layers of an Indian Elephant Care Manual
Project Brief Summary:
The project investigates the use of non-discursive methods in rhetoric by exploring photogrammetry, which transforms two-dimensional photographs into three-dimensional models, as a rhetorical tool. Photogrammetry underpins many augmented and virtual reality experiences and digital recreations of physical spaces. By intentionally disrupting standard practices, the project reveals how glitches and unexpected renderings can create opportunities for rhetorical intervention. It aims to highlight the complexities of digital representation, question visuality as a medium, and emphasize the role of affective experiences and aesthetics in shaping our connections to spaces. Through workshops and proficiency in Agisoft Metashape, the project will culminate in a Scalar-based webtext that presents research in a multimedia, nonlinear format, featuring interactive 3D models and an analysis of photogrammetry’s rhetorical affordances, with the goal of publication in Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy.

Kimberlyn Harrison | Assistant Instructor, English - Rhetoric & Writing | University of Texas at Austin

Project Title: Photogrammetry as Rhetorical Method
Project Brief Summary:
This project explores using photogrammetry, which turns 2D photos into 3D models, as a rhetorical method. By intentionally creating glitches and unexpected renderings, it highlights the complexities of digital representation and the role of aesthetics in shaping our connections to spaces. The project will result in a Scalar-based webtext featuring interactive 3D models and an analysis of photogrammetry’s rhetorical potential, aiming for publication in Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy.

Mary Elizabeth "Liz" Ibarrola | Assistant ProfessorAnthropology | University of Texas at Austin

Project Title: “Tell the Story”: Building A Research-Driven Digital Experience for Fort Mose Historic State Park
Project Brief Summary:
This project aims to create a comprehensive website for Fort Mose Historic State Park in St. Augustine, Florida, to share its history through archaeological and historical analysis. Fort Mose, a refuge for enslaved Africans in the colonial era, will be presented via an interactive online platform. The project will digitize artifacts, documents, and site maps, develop educational resources, create an immersive virtual tour, integrate research data, and engage the community through participatory projects. A DH Research Project Development Grant will support the digital preservation and research integration aspects, helping to build a prototype website featuring recently excavated materials and a digital exhibit.

Peniel Joseph | Professor, History | University of Texas at Austin

Project Title: The Fire This Time: 1963 and America’s Civil Rights Revolution
Project Brief Summary:
This project aims to create an interactive digital exhibit and archive exploring the historical roots of contemporary US political polarization through the lens of the civil rights movement and American democracy in 1963. Users will assume the identities of key historical figures like James Baldwin and John F. Kennedy to experience 1963 firsthand. The project will utilize DHResearch tools to build a website featuring 50 core images, interviews, speeches, and articles, providing a comprehensive view of the era. The goal is to enhance understanding of the socio-political dynamics of 1963 and their relevance to today’s political landscape, while also serving as an educational resource for scholars, students, and the public.

Elon Lang | Associate Professor of InstructionLiberal Arts Honors Program | University of Texas at Austin

Project Title: Center for Teaching and Learning 50th Anniversary Digital Archive
Project Brief Summary:
Professor Lang will work with an undergraduate Museum Studies student to create an online home for the Center for Teaching and Learning’s 50th-Anniversary exhibit and archive. Last semester, a team of students scanned the Center’s collection of artifacts and assembled physical exhibits for its new location. The student will need training in setting up a Scalar or Omeka site and organizing it based on the physical exhibits. We will also need help writing a maintenance and preservation plan for the site to ensure the CTL can continue adding to its holdings over the next fifty years.

Anne Lewis | Professor of PracticeDepartment of Radio-Television-Film | University of Texas at Austin

Project Title: On Life and Death with Dementia
Project Brief Summary:
In January 2025, we will launch a digital humanities site to explore societal values and concerns around life and death with dementia, aimed at engaging the Texas public. The site will feature an international cultural map, a timeline of care work in Texas, an exploration of the healing power of the arts, and an interactive space to understand the personhood of those with dementia. By integrating humanities scholarship with digital technology, the project will offer a collaborative and interdisciplinary approach. The team includes scholars from various fields, and the site will provide educational resources, interactive timelines, and cultural insights, aiming to foster community engagement and support.

Sophia Monegro | Ph.D. Candidate, African and African Diaspora Studies Department | University of Texas at Austin

Project Title: Shadow Scholars: A Black Women's Archive of Dominican Society, 1492 - 1850
Project Brief Summary:
“Shadow Scholars: A Black Woman’s Archive of Dominican Society” is an open-access digital platform featuring archival documents, scholarly introductions, biographical sketches, interactive maps, and classroom resources about African and African descendant women thinkers in Dominican society. Utilizing Omeka, the project aims to create a repository tracing the intellectualism of Black women from the colonial period (1492-1844), highlighting figures like La Negra del Hospital and Anna Madgigine Jai Kingsley. The platform provides primary source materials, translations, and critical commentaries, challenging traditional notions of intellectualism and showcasing the rich intellectual contributions of Caribbean women beyond written records.

Mary Neuburger | Mildred Hajek Vacek and John Roman Vacek Distinguished University Chair in Russian and Slavic Languages; Director of CREEES; and Chair of the Slavic & Eurasian Studies Department, History | University of Texas at Austin

Project Title: Documenting the Cold War
Project Brief Summary:
“Documenting the Cold War” is an online archive portal linking to thousands of digitized documents from the LBJ Library, focusing on East European and USSR country files. Initiated by the Center for Russian, East Europe, and Eurasian Studies, the project aims to enhance the site’s presentation, usability, and visibility with DHResearch funds. The project involves ongoing digitization, web development, and metadata work, with plans to train staff in Scalar for site maintenance. The site will be used in a spring 2025 undergraduate seminar, allowing students to engage with primary sources and contribute to the site’s curation.

Megan Poole | Assistant Professor, Rhetoric and Writing | University of Texas at Austin

Project Title: Imagining ANN: Digitizing the Lost History of Slavery in Southwest Louisiana
Project Brief Summary:
This project, “Imagining ANN,” aims to uncover and present the hidden history of slavery in Southwest Louisiana by digitizing and organizing original conveyance books and survey maps that reveal slave sale activity in Calcasieu Parish between 1840-1865. Named after Ann, the first recorded Black individual in the Armor Title conveyance records, the project will create a digital archive to bring her story and those of other enslaved individuals to public knowledge. A collaborative team seeks grant funding to digitize over 70,000 pages of historical documents and maps, using the Omeka platform to build an online exhibit. The project aims to provide a broader representation of the region’s history and make these resources accessible to the public.

Ipek Sahinler | Comparative Literature | University of Texas at Austin

Project Title: Turkey’s Kaleidoscope of Queerness: Unraveling Stories of Resilience
Project Brief Summary:
“Turkey’s Kaleidoscope of Queerness” is a project that aims to document and explore the diverse experiences of LGBTQ+ individuals across various regions of Turkey, beyond the commonly discussed context of Istanbul. By creating a digital oral history archive, the project will highlight the regional nuances, linguistic differences, and cultural aspects influencing the understanding of queerness in cities like Eskişehir, Konya, Sivas, Adana, Mardin, Mersin, and Diyarbakır. The project will produce a digital archive, a podcast series, and a peer-reviewed article, utilizing tools like OHMS, Otter.ai, Audacity, Dublin Core, and Omeka. This initiative seeks to foster an inclusive dialogue about queerness in Turkey, combining oral history, critical cartography, and community advocacy to document and amplify the voices and histories of marginalized communities.

Babak Tabarraee | Assistant Professor of Instruction, Middle Eastern Studies | University of Texas at Austin

Project Title: Persian Grammar in Practice
Project Brief Summary:
Despite the importance of Persian, current learning resources are outdated, focusing too much on formal written language and not enough on spoken forms or practical usage. To address this, Professor Tabarraee will develop an online OER grammar companion, “Persian Grammar in Practice,” which emphasizes pragmatics. The book features encyclopedic entries with two levels: elementary/intermediate, offering simple explanations, examples, and exercises; and advanced, covering exceptions and classical literature. With 25% of the entries completed, I plan to use Scalar to publish the book, making it accessible to students and instructors. A grant will help fund audio recordings and media examples, aiming for use in Persian classes by Spring 2024 and Fall 2025.

Trent Wintermeier | PhD Student, Department of Rhetoric and Writing | University of Texas at Austin

Project Title: Pipe Dreams: Sonic Phenomena Between Environment and Industry
Project Brief Summary:
This project, funded by the MLA’s Edward Guiliano Global Fellowship, aims to exhibit audio, visual, archival, and experiential data collected in late-November 2024 from the Trans-Pecos and Permian Basin. The research investigates the “hum” phenomenon—a global acoustic mystery potentially linked to underground high-pressure natural gas pipelines—and its relation to environmental discord caused by fossil fuel industries. The project collected over 50 photographs, nearly an hour of audio recordings, media documentation, and field notes from various cities in Texas. Using Scalar, the project will organize and exhibit this data in a non-linear, rhizomatic structure, with geospatial visualizations based on geographic locations. The goal is to present this exhibit to the MLA as part of a larger portfolio, highlighting the multisensory discord between the environment and extractive industries.

What we need

Spring 2025 application [closed]
A 500-word abstract on your research and how Omeka or Scalar might help forward the project. Be as specific as you can about your goals for the semester in question.

Options

Spring 2025