Author Archives: Radhika Kashyap

Heritage in Motion

Our project, Heritage in Motion, traces the origins and acquisition histories in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Asian Art collection. Artifacts in museums have been taken out of their cultural and historical contexts. Our map aims to make the cultural histories of artifacts accessible, promote transparency, and encourage conversations about repatriation.

The map will visualize the displacement of cultural objects due to colonialism and encourage discussion about ethical museum practices. In the initial phase, we will study 50 artifacts from the collection. The map will allow users to explore these histories through clickable markers that provide detailed acquisition histories, cultural contexts, and timelines. Users will be able to explore artifacts by geographic region, historical period, and artifact type. By combining these histories with interactive maps, we hope to create a tool that’s educational and engaging. 

Some challenges we might face are the accuracy of our data, maintaining cultural sensitivity, and technological limitations. We will ensure accuracy by using data from reliable sources, such as the MET database, and data cleaning. We will also collaborate with curators, historians, and cultural representatives to present artifacts respectfully and accurately. We will also perform quality assurance testing, collaborate with web developers, and follow accessibility standards. 

By sharing these histories in an engaging and interactive way, we hope to promote reflection on past colonial histories and encourage more ethical museum practices.  

@radhikakashyap @rabana

Grant Writing Workshop

In late October, I attended a grant writing workshop hosted by the Interactive Technology and Pedagogy program. The workshop by Mieasia Edwards provided an overview of the grant writing processes and promoted group work and collaboration. Participants went into breakout rooms to discuss our proposals and gave each other advice and feedback. At the end of the workshop, we were also given time to create a white paper that could later be refined for grant applications.  

The workshop discussed the grant lifecycle, which includes seven steps: generating an idea, finding funding, developing a proposal, submitting it, negotiating and setting up an award, managing the award, and closing the project. There was also a lot of emphasis on defining the “why” of the research. I found this section particularly helpful when writing the abstract for the DH project. The workshop also provided a list of funding sources.

The section I found most helpful was the one that showed the grant lifecycle through the eyes of both a grantee and a grantor. It helped me understand what a grantor would look for, how to frame my proposal, and the importance of communicating my project’s significance.

Here is the link to the slides from the workshop: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1eUIruNjSa0ioWQZwhKBHWEJuoBT8HAHG/edit#slide=id.g2d4e7775594_0_31

I hope to use what I learned in last week’s class and the ITP workshop to help me with my project proposal!

Data Visualization Praxis Assignment

For the assignment, I decided to visualize the leading causes of death in New York City. Using data from NYC Open Data, I wanted to study which causes of death affected different racial and ethnic groups. I created two visualizations on Tableau Public. I have never really used the platform before and struggled a little bit. One of the most challenging parts of making the visualizations was the inconsistencies in the dataset. In the Race and Ethnicity columns, there were different ways of labeling the same group. For example, Non-Hispanic Black and Black Non-Hispanic were showing up as other labels. I figured out how to use Tableau’s calculated fields to clean the data and make the data consistent. I also wanted to graph the total death rates but a lot of the data had missing values. At first, I thought about removing these values but reflecting on “Against Cleaning”, I wondered what information would be hidden or lost if I cleaned the data too much.  

The line graph, Leading Causes of Death in NYC, 2007-2022, shows the top 5 causes of death in NYC, including Diseases of the Heart, All other causes, Malignant neoplasms (cancers), Influenza and Pneumonia, and COVID-19. In 2020, you can see the large increase in deaths caused by COVID-19 and the drop that followed as vaccines and public health measures were implemented

The second visualization, “Trends in Leading Causes of Deaths by Race/Ethnicity, NYC (2015-2021), shows how causes of death affected different racial and ethnic groups. The graph uses a gradient where dark larger red squares represent higher death rates.

What DH Means

Digital Humanities is the use of digital technologies to support research in the humanities. Through methods such as mapping, data mining, data visualization, digital projects, etc. Digital Humanities places an emphasis on collaborative research and open access, aiming to make information more accessible. The field of digital humanities is not free from bias. Like much of academia, it can also center Western perspectives in knowledge production. However, Digital Humanities also has the ability to transform and reshape traditional academic practices.

DH can be used as a form of resistance and as a tool to amplify voices and bring attention critical issues. For example, Torn Apart/Separados, is a digital humanities project that maps the detention of migrants and the separation of immigrant children from their families. Torn Apart brings attention to the network of ICE detention centers and systematic issues.

Another example, the Colored Conventions Project, connects scholars, librarians, both graduate and undergraduate researchers in a collaborative research project to archive the history of 19th century Black political organizing in the U.S. Histories that would have been forgotten are being revived through their joint efforts. The Early Caribbean Digital Archive, an open access archive of pre-twentieth century Caribbean history, similarly brings together interdisciplinary students and scholars to decolonize historical narratives.  Both The Colored Conventions Project and Early Caribbean Digital Archive are examples of epistemic resistance by pushing back against the dominance of the “Global North” in academia.