Category: Undergraduate Fellows

Having conceived of the idea to investigate the impact of the refugee crisis on German identity, my next and most immediate challenge has been to make rigorous abstractions from this research question. Consequently, I devised two approaches:

1. Understand the refugee crisis
2. Devise ways to portray important insights digitally in order to attribute meaning to the research question

The former relates to historical, cultural, political, and social considerations, while the latter has led me to contemplate the platform and communication of the research: Digital Humanities. In my readings over the past few weeks, the single, most emerging facet relating to DH has been its profound enrichment of communicating ideas. Observing data or reading words on a page evokes different emotions and levels of understanding than interacting with a concept, be it data, text, or other. Finding creative ways to communicate can enhance understanding and meaning (this is often accomplished by appealing to the five senses).

Contemplating the above, I have since devised a framework upon which I will structure my project via a digital platform. The five interconnected components will each play a role in the overarching theme:

1. Overview of project (“I am”: Identity)
2. History of Refugee Crisis (Timeline)
3. Mapping (Digital Mapping)
4. Refugees of Germany (Picture: Story)
5. Field Research (Data Representation)

Finally, I’d like to bridge the distinction between portraying events versus scientific explanation. Ultimately, the intersection between scientific inquiry and digital humanities rings increasingly important: DH is a vehicle with which science can be effectively communicated to and received by all.

We are thrilled to announce a new program in our DH initiative at W&L: the Mellon Digital Humanities Undergraduate Fellowship. We have two fellows for the Winter term who will be developing their own DH projects. They will be blogging regularly on their progress. Check out Matt’s first post below!

Hi, my name is Matt and I am a student of German, Economics, and Mathematics. My interest in the German culture originates from a holiday spent in Heidelberg in 2006, and has since been encouraged in my classes and discourses with professors and peers during my time in high school and college. Having been far from married to the idea of pursuing a degree in German prior to my membership in an Advanced German course during my first year, I now look back fondly on my eagerness to “see the world” during that year, which resulted in a 4-month stay at the Üniversität Bayreuth that summer. It was in these months I developed a formative and intimate understanding of German culture.

I am currently preparing for yet another stay in Germany, this time to conduct research on a topic that is likely familiar to you. The refugee crisis has undoubtedly been polarizing in the media, coined by some as a moral crisis, condemned by others as a catalyst of the rise of terrorism in the Middle East, and, for the receiving countries, a herculean challenge to integrate millions of refugees into their communities, thereby reconciling two opposing cultures. I am extraordinarily interested in how the influx of refugees could affect the German conception of its own identity given the structural and historical restrictiveness of citizenship and naturalization laws, which seem to encourage an unadulterated ethnocultural citizenry. Similarly, I hope to be the artistic voice of the refugees residing in Germany by telling their story.

This program is made possible by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

We are thrilled to announce a new program in our DH initiative at W&L: the Mellon Digital Humanities Undergraduate Fellowship. We have two fellows for the Winter term who will be developing their own DH projects. They will be blogging regularly on their progress. Check out Arlette’s first post below!

Hello! My name is Arlette Hernandez and I am a sophomore English major and Creative Writing minor from Jacksonville, Florida. I am one of the two undergraduate recipients of the Mellon Digital Humanities Fellowship and my project is tentatively called “Lions, Jungles, and Natives: Colonialism and the Individual’s Perception of Africa in 1929.” I got the idea for this project after taking an African History course and working with special collections materials from a Vassar professor’s 1929 trip to the Eastern states of the African continent. I was stunned by the content of the five photograph albums, but even more so by the language and overwhelming presence of tropes. There is no continent more essentialized than Africa and this is largely the product of colonialism. The goal of my project is to discuss the problematic legacy of three centuries of imperialism while shedding light on issues of implicit bias and flawed, or even absent, cultural appreciation.

Moving forward, I plan to transcribe Professor Hills’ diaries and analyze the photos and films in the collection, paying close attention to how the Western eye constructs Africa. The final product of my research will be a digital exhibit that synthesizes the textual and visual materials of the Hills collection through a process of mapping. One of the maps will details Professor Hills’ journey and the other will track the use of visual tropes in the films and photographs. I would also like to build a representation of the Africa imagined by the West to demonstrate how it contrasts with reality. Ultimately, I want to make these materials more accessible to the public while increasing awareness about rampant and uncontrollable preconceptions that are born from history and continued with each passing generation.

This program is made possible by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.