319. Archives in Between: Digital Humanities and Material Culture in East Asian Studies Scholarship and Teaching

Session Submission Type: Workshop

Abstract

This collaborative and interactive workshop has two objectives: 1) to introduce participants to models of critical inquiry in the process of creating, managing, and curating digital surrogates of ephemeral material culture; 2) to promote the creation and recognition of digital archives as critical scholarship and powerful research and pedagogical tools. We will introduce workshop participants to two large-scale, ongoing digital humanities projects. Both are faculty-library collaborations offering innovative pathways for East Asian Studies scholarship, research, and teaching. Re-Envisioning Japan: Japan as Destination in 20th Century Visual and Material Culture (REJ) models scholarship realized and communicated through the creative digital curation of an original physical collection of travel and educational ephemera. Its multimedia archive documents changing representations of Japan and its place in the world during the early to mid 20th century. The East Asia Image Collection (EAIC) is an open-access archive of digital surrogates documenting the history of imperial Japan, its Asian empire, and occupied Japan. It is built around a core library collection of postcards, photograph negatives, Kodachrome slides and rare books. The workshop is organized around three activities: object analysis, contextual metadata approach and management, and curated online exhibitions. The first activity focuses on the direct link between physical collections and their digital facsimiles. The second activity is an editing session introducing workshop participants to the contextual considerations behind the metadata structures currently used by REJ and EAIC. The third activity focuses on the tools and conceptual approaches that each project uses in curating its digital collections.

Area of Study

• Japan

Session Organizer

• Iskandar Zulkarnain, Hobart and William Smith Colleges

Chair

• Joanne Bernardi, University of Rochester

Presenters

• Paul D. Barclay, Lafayette College

• Nora S. Dimmock, University of Rochester

• Eric Luhrs, Lafayette College

• Tracy Stuber, University of Rochester

• Michaela Kelly, Lafayette College