In addition to being in the Digital Humanities certification program, I am a Library and Information Science grad student with a focus on archives and libraries, and I have a Bachelor’s in History from Humboldt State University. Thus, my interests are a combination of digital humanities, archives, libraries, and history. I am especially interested in how we can use technology to promote hidden histories in the archival realm; not just in community archives but in official archives as well. I believe that by applying digital humanities methods and tools to the world of archives we can expand what an archivable material even is and how we can describe it. For instance, my work with the Mukurtu project uses indigenous knowledge to describe items, connecting them to the lives and daily practices of the members. I am interested in applying such affective connectivity and relatedness with objects to other communities as well, including those of Appalachia. In my time spent researching The digital library of Appalachia, I felt that the Dublin Core metadata schema wasn’t sufficient in representing the histories of the diverse peoples of the region, from coal miners to Cherokee. Digital Humanities could not only improve this but facilitate discoverability in the collection. Four of my projects and presentations focus on archives and how they can best support the creator, from residents of the Appalachian region in the United States to indigenous women in Latin America, but I also spent time applying statistical methods with tools like R and Tableau to discover data on arrests in LA and global happiness.
Archival work is very closely related to librarianship, especially in the sense that both provide a patron with vast research possibilities. As such, I am interested not only in my own projects but in assisting others with theirs. During my internship at the San Diego State University library, I compiled a research guide for information on Japanese-American Internment Camps, which was organized by theme (children, responses, daily life, outside perspectives, and the camps themselves). I created it with the intention that Japanese-American stories as provided by Japanese-Americans were the central focus and nexus from which research could begin. This centrality of the subject is one in which I plan to integrate in my future career, whether it be in library or archival work. My primary interest is in Latin America, where I hope to continue the sort of work being spearheaded by scholars like Ramesh Srinivasan and Jeffrey Huang to work with indigenous groups of Perú in constructing an archive of their communities.
