Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere

This workshop takes the rhetorical exercise of inquiry as a point of departure for navigating DLOC data. We will use rhetorical analysis as the framework for searching and analyzing items and collections in the database. Participants will employ a “search and serendipity” method as a point of entry into the portal and use the inquiry framework to define, refine and their research questions and project design. The goal of this approach is to interrogate and challenge the colonial concept of “discovery” in archival research, by positioning the student researcher as a practitioner of care for archival material of all kinds.

This workshop is ideal for students with big ideas or broad topics of interest who are curious about working with digital data collections and want to use them to help clarify their thinking and refine their research questions and strategy. Participants do not need to have any experience with digital humanities or computational analysis, but should be prepared to come to the workshop with a broad research topic in mind. With specific attention to the digital collections of DLOC, participants will be guided to use primary sources as the catalyst to turn ideas into research questions, then into more formal projects.

More information here.

Register here.