Structuring Archival Sources as Data

REGISTRATION: Click Here Are you looking for ways to apply your research question to a collection of newspapers, photographs, letters, or other archival materials? Have you ever thought a spreadsheet or database might help your research? In this workshop, you will learn how to organize archival data around your research question(s) with an eye toward ethical concerns and common humanities data challenges, including consistency, uncertainty, ambiguity, and scale. We will consider a range of examples and will collaborate on an exercise that will give you hands-on experience creating a data structure for archival sources. You will also be introduced to key methods for digital humanities analysis, including matching data structures to visualization types and applications of data feminism principles* such as recognizing and addressing source biases, creating an intentional data collection and structuring practice, and making labor and decision-making in data collection and structuring visible. By the end of this workshop, you will be able to: • Identify when gathering data may be an appropriate way to address your research question(s); • Articulate when you need a spreadsheet as opposed to a database; • Structure archival data around your research question(s); • Identify and address common humanities data challenges, including consistency, uncertainty, ambiguity, and scale; • Apply data feminism principles to data structures by, for example, choosing when to de-identify data, making your labor and decision-making explicit, rethinking binaries and hierarchies, including multiple perspectives, and maintaining key contextual features. *Data feminism scholarship we will be drawing from includes the Feminist Data Manifest-No and Data Feminism. This workshop will be facilitated by Hannah Jacobs, Digital Humanities Consultant with Duke Libraries. Participation: You will be invited to participate in the hands-on exercise and discussions via mic or chat. Use of cameras during interactive sections is encouraged. Attending this event fulfills the RCR-200 requirement for Faculty and Staff and is eligible for 714 RCR credit for graduate students, but participants must attend for 60 minutes and participate in discussion to receive credit.