Hey Shannon,

Jumping off of Leo’s post- how might we plan to use some of what Yergeau argues in the projects you will all propose next week? What is some actionable advice you might give to your peers based on this article?

Leo,

I’ve also noticed this commitment to some level of social advocacy, historical inequalities, and interaction in the vast majority of public history projects I’ve encountered. I’m sure there are ways for other humanities disciplines to commit to similar causes.

I think your potential project idea about dispensing royalty-free music for…[Read more]

Faith,
You make a great point about keywords embedded in your project. Choosing searchable words (words that can be found easily by people who you want to reach online) to include in your project’s title or tags is definitely something to keep in mind when you come up with your project pitch for this class!

Hey Jen,

I love your ideas! I’m also a big horror and D&D fan – I play every Friday evening with some fellow PhDs on Zoom ever since March of last year.

I like the ideas of either a podcast or a YouTube channel. By having a transcript of each episode, you would make your podcast accessible, so I think you should still consider podcasting…[Read more]

Hi Shannon and Rhiannon,

Thanks for your responses!

Do you think even adding universal design methods to your project, as described by Williams, would make it messy and unfocused? I guess I’m curious to hear your thoughts on the potential detriments of using universal design.

Thoraya,

Thanks for this response!

Adding to your point about access, even if someone outside of a university knows about JSTOR, it won’t be that helpful, because JSTOR requires users to have a membership in order to actually access any of the articles on their database. We have that access because we’re students at Stony Brook, but once we…[Read more]

Hi Cesar,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

Time can be really interesting within academia. First of all, it can take years between an article getting accepted for publication within an academic journal or manuscript and its actual publication. So by the time an academic article actually gets published, its information or its content might…[Read more]

Hi Nicole,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

This concept of the ivory tower is just meant to allegorize the way that academics, and humanities scholars in particular, tend to feel or behave like their work has no connection to the “real world” or to the public. Public humanists definitely DON’T view themselves or what they do as being…[Read more]

Raj,

Thanks for this response!

I agree – what’s the point if it has no connection to the outside world? I have a hard time even imaging doing humanities work for fun if there’s no such connection.

You bring up the “previously discussed idea of working on the language we utilize” and note that you find this concept useful. What exactly is…[Read more]

Shannon,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

One of the great things about the humanities in general (at least on my opinion) is that everything is complex, even if it at first seems really obvious. In our discipline, we tend to ask questions, and then ask more questions, and continue this process until we’ve fully unravelled whatever it is…[Read more]

Hey April,

Thanks for this response!

Keep in mind that academic texts are usually really expensive and are not widely marketed, so it’s difficult for the public to even know about them, let alone afford them. So academic publishing barely makes such work available. These texts are available to us only because we are affiliated with Stony…[Read more]

Hey Leo,

Great post!

You’re right to note that it is important to question “why” you’re making a public humanities project at the start of making it public, rather than simply post a digital project publicly. I think the answer to that question will be a helpful guide, not only in determining whether or not it should be created, but also how…[Read more]

Hi Brenna,
Thanks for sharing this response!
I also liked Shumway’s discussion of pop culture, and how the public’s interest in examining and discussing pop culture could potentially be a way “in” for humanities scholars to engage the public. I’m interested in hearing why exactly you included the Shumway quote you chose about how humanities…[Read more]

Haha, thanks Jen, I love this pizza analogy!

Rhiannon,

Yes, I completely agree that moving from a more traditional form of academic work into the public humanities (PH) can be a win-win for scholars and the public alike for the reasons that you mention. I’ll add, too, that right now, many university and college humanities departments across the US are facing major budget cuts. Perhaps if…[Read more]

Thoraya,

Thanks for this response!
Yes, the digital public humanities has some radical potential in its ability to provide a platform for people both within and outside of the academy to engage in academic conversation and work. I think it would be really neat if you are able to find a way to make use of this radical potential in your final…[Read more]

Nicole,

Thanks for this response, I loved the connection you made between public humanities and the medical field!

I agree – two things have to be done with PH projects: (1) make sure your work is not behind a paywall (in other words, make it free, or at least as free as possible for others to access); and (2) It should be engaging and…[Read more]

Chris,

Thanks for this response!

Yes, there is no set definition for digital public humanities – part of the fun is coming up with your own working definition (that will likely be revised as you continue to participate in the field) that you can use to begin your own public humanities work! A good way to come up with your own definition and…[Read more]

Hi Xinyu,
Thanks for this response!
Remember that this class focuses on public humanities and digital public humanities, not so much digital humanities. While we will pull a bit from some digital humanities scholars and sources, we will only do that to think more about how we can create public humanities projects online.
I’m interested to…[Read more]

Hi Mostafa,

Thanks for this response!

I’m interested in your understanding of Public Humanities as academic research “re-explained” for the public because some of the texts we read in Modules 2-4 may change your mind! For example, there are some scholars who view PH projects as only those that engage and work with the public right from the…[Read more]