Hi, all. When you submit your final papers to Matt and me via email please be sure to send a copy in Word (not pdf). Makes it easier for us to comment back and forth. Many thanks and have a great holiday.

Hope you all had a good holiday. Matt updated the reading list for our next class including adding the link to the Black DH Projects and Resources list that had appeared earlier in the syllabus. It’s a great place to dive in. I want to offer one more link that I’m particularly fond of: an article in issue #6 of the JITP, which I co-edited, on a unique Black DH project, the Runaway Quilts Project developed by Deimosa Webber-Bey.

It appears here: https://jitp.commons.gc.cuny.edu/runaway-quilt-project-digital-humanities-exploration-of-quilting-during-the-era-of-slavery/

Much to ponder about visualizations, thanks to Micki’s excellent presentation today of her work. I wanted to note for the class a brilliant piece of visualized data that the great sociologist and educator W.E.B Dubois developed for the American exhibit at the 1900 Paris Exhibition. His goal was the help visitors understand the status of African Americans in the U.S. in that period of racial repression and Jim Crow. You can check out Dubois’s incredibly modern visual presentations on the Library of Congress website: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=%22lot%2011931%22%20NOT%20medal&st=grid&co=anedub&loclr=blogpic

I think that these charts and graphs are powerful and quite beautiful visualizations that help reveal the world of African Americans in the U.S. (and especially in Georgia) 118 years ago. I believe they remain  powerful in their impact precisely because of their clear and accessible design and brilliant use of color.

The link Lauren provided in her article on distant reading is dead. Here’s a current one: http://coloredconventions.org/ . This site is very much worth exploring.