Dream Lab 2024: Nuts and Bolts of DH Project Development

About Dream Lab 2024:

Hosted at the University of Pennsylvania, Dream Lab is designed to help humanists become more confident and thoughtful users, creators, and critics of digital technology.

There will be 8 courses to choose from, each of which combines technical instruction with practical application. Please visit this link to view the detailed course list!

Dream Lab is open to everyone but has been designed with aspiring and teaching faculty, aspiring research librarians and aspiring archivists in mind. Register now, and we'll see you on June 10-13, 2024!

Course Description:

Are you interested in learning how to support digital humanities research and teaching as a librarian or consultant? Do you want to do a digital humanities project, but aren’t sure what to do or where to start? As digital humanities and digital scholarship projects become part of curriculum design, the ability to support faculty and researchers is increasingly important. Participants will explore key areas of DH work, including gathering data and sources, building and sharing projects, preservation and sustainability, and project and resource management.

Through small group work and hands-on exercises, participants will create a project plan using one DH methodology that can be adapted to other types of DH projects and funding needs. This course will equip participants with skills for strategic planning and project development to leverage as part of the grant writing process and securing institutional support.

Specific tools and platforms covered may include Voyant, AntConc, Omeka, WordPress, web scraping tools, StoryMapJS and TimelineJS, and data visualization software.

Our focus will be on aspiring or current DH librarians and consultants, and is adaptable for early DH or humanities scholars who want an understanding of the landscape.

Instructors

Kayla Abner is enthusiastic about teaching as a means to empower students and scholars to create meaningful and feasible digital projects. She takes a social justice approach to digital scholarship, whether that involves helping scholars understand the ethics of data collection and use, or encouraging students to highlight non-dominant perspectives in their digital storytelling projects. Kayla’s interests in digital scholarship include web scraping, data curation and visualization, text mining, and digital mapping. She holds a Master’s Degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Lauren Cooper is the digital scholarship librarian and project manager for the Center for Digital Research/#DigBlk at Penn State University. #DigBlk is home to the Black Women’s Organizing Archive, Douglass Day, and the Colored Conventions Project. Lauren works with students, colleagues, and partners to implement, develop, and manage digital scholarship and publishing projects. As a member of the #DigBlk Exec Team, she participates in strategic planning, grant writing and management, and relationship development. Lauren has a Master’s in Library and Information Science from the University of Maryland, College Park with a concentration in Archives and Digital Curation.

Housing:

Participants in Dream Lab 2024 are responsible for finding their own accommodations. In addition to hotels and Airbnb/Vrbo, on-campus housing will be made available for a nightly rate + tax. You will need a Penn Card if you choose to stay in on-campus housing. If you do not have a Penn Card, you will need to purchase a temp card. We'll share a link to sign up for on-campus housing as soon as possible.

For more Dream related news, please visit our website.

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Please make sure to read Dream Lab's FAQ and Code of Conduct before registering.

Price Lab for Digital Humanities is committed to prioritizing the health and well-being of our community. We will follow Penn’s COVID-19 guidelines for safety while planning Dream Lab 2023 to ensure we can provide the best possible experience for all. As of November 2022, face masks are optional and we are no longer requiring proof of vaccination or PennOpen Pass.