Digital Humanities

  • Alumni Highlight: Kendyl Lemahieu

    Alumni Highlight: Kendyl Lemahieu

    When Kendyl looks back on her career path, one thing particularly stands out: her work has always been about connecting with people. Now, as an E-Commerce Marketing Manager at Baker Publishing Group, she gets to do that every day by helping readers discover and engage with Baker Book House online. Whether she’s launching something new like TikTok Shop, building product visibility on Pinterest, or refining social ad strategies, she’s constantly testing, learning, and adjusting. At the end of the day, her goal is simple: grow the brand while creating real, meaningful connections with her audience.

    That focus on people really started during her time at Michigan State University, where she minored in Digital Humanities. The program changed how she thinks about marketing. It taught her how to take human experiences and bring them into digital spaces in a way that feels authentic. Even now, working in such a data-driven industry, she always comes back to the same question: who is on the other side of the screen? That perspective shapes everything she does, from messaging to platform strategy.

    One of her most memorable experiences in the program was a project where she analyzed mission statements across MSU’s colleges and compared them to gender distribution in those programs. It showed her how something as simple as language can influence someone’s decision on whether or not to participate in a program. That really stuck with her. It made her more intentional about the words she uses and more aware of how messaging can be inclusive or exclusive. It’s something she still carries with her in her work today.

    During her studies, she didn’t fully realize how relevant Digital Humanities would be when it comes to navigating newer technologies like AI. But looking back, it gave her a mindset she relies on all the time. For Kendyl, Technology is just a tool, it’s not the focus. The focus is the person she’s trying to connect with through authentic storytelling.

    Another thing she took from her experience is the ability to simplify complex ideas. A lot of her projects in school involved taking something big or abstract and turning it into something people could actually understand and engage with. That skill shows up in her work every day, whether she’s building a campaign or launching a new program. She’s always thinking about how to make things clear, accessible, and meaningful.

    Her study abroad experience in London also played a big role in shaping how she sees storytelling. Spending time in museums and watching live performances helped her understand how powerful a well-designed experience can be. It also showed her that storytelling isn’t limited to digital spaces; it exists everywhere, and the way it’s presented really matters.

    In addition to her study abroad experience, some of her favorite memories from MSU are the simpler ones. Walking along the Red Cedar River, sitting outside with friends, and just enjoying campus are the moments that made it feel like home. She still remembers visiting for the first time as a high school sophomore and instantly feeling like she belonged, and that feeling stuck with her long after graduation.

    If she could advise current students on one thing, it would be this: don’t underestimate what you’re learning. Even if something feels specific to that course or project, the way you’re learning to think and solve problems will stay with you. Stay curious, try new things, and trust that it will all come together in ways you might not yet be able to see.

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  • Bringing Immersive Storytelling Into Interior Design Education 

    Bringing Immersive Storytelling Into Interior Design Education 

    In February 2026, the Digital Scholarship Lab (DSL) collaborated with Dr. Jisun Lee’s course, PDC 491 – Special Topics in Planning, Design and Construction: Virtual Reality Application in Interior Design, to integrate immersive storytelling and 360 media production into student learning. 

    This partnership was supported by a Catalyst Grant the DSL received from the Center for Teaching and Learning Innovation (CTLI), which funds innovative digital learning experiences across campus. Through this grant, the DSL purchased ten Insta 360 X5 camera kits, including selfie sticks and cases, to expand opportunities for students to create immersive media for the 360 Room or Virtual Reality. 

    With access to this equipment and tailored technical support, PDC 491 students explored how 360 videos can convey meaning about environments through atmosphere and perspective. Responding to the prompt, “A Place That Represents Me,” students produced short 360 videos featuring locations within the MSU Main Library that held personal significance. Sharing why the location mattered to them, what emotions or spatial qualities it embodied, and how immersive viewing reshapes spatial understanding, students explored how 360 video functions as an experiential form of design communication. 

    The DSL continues to expand its support for immersive media creation across campus. Instructors interested in incorporating immersive digital storytelling into future courses are encouraged to reach out for a consultation.  

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  • What DH Means to Me: Kathleen Fitzpatrick

    What DH Means to Me: Kathleen Fitzpatrick

    Honestly, perhaps the most-cited thing I’ve ever published is a chapter in Debates in the Digital Humanities, in which I quoted an old ProfHacker blog post, in which I offered a provisional definition of DH. The blog post is now 16 years old — old enough to drive! — but it’s a definition I’d mostly stand by today:

    “a nexus of fields within which scholars use computing technologies to investigate the kinds of questions that are traditional to the humanities, or, as is more true of my own work, who ask traditional kinds of humanities-oriented questions about computing technologies.”

    The only part I’d retreat from is the “as is more true of my own work,” as I haven’t been doing the kind of writing of late in which I interrogate computing technologies. If anything, I’ve been doing a third kind of work: building a platform on which the widest possible range of researchers can do their own work digitally. Knowledge Commons is in many ways the key project of my career, not least in its capacity for helping others collaborate, communicate, share, and preserve their work — openly, without regard for institutional affiliation, title, geographic location, or ability to pay. We are community governed, values enacted, shared infrastructure for the future of scholarship, and those commitments are for me where the ethical heart of the digital humanities lies.

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  • Margaux Malek Smith Alumni Highlight

    Margaux Malek Smith Alumni Highlight

    Margaux Malek Smith currently works as a Teaching Assistant in Normandy, France, participating in the TAPIF program. Her path to this role was shaped by her experiences in Digital Humanities (DH) at MSU, which connected to her discipline in unexpected ways. Initially, she considered studying abroad with a friend who had joined a program, but when her friend dropped out, Margaux decided to go alone, and the rest is history.

    Some of her standout experiences at MSU include working at the Digital Scholarship Lab and studying abroad in London and Edinburgh, where she explored how technology shapes culture and creative practice. These opportunities taught her to think critically about digital media, collaborate across disciplines, and approach research projects with intention.

    Margaux also credits internships, multiple on-campus jobs, and her second study abroad in Tours, France, for helping her grow. They pushed her beyond what she thought possible and gave her a foundation for teaching and research today.

    Her favorite MSU memories aren’t all academic. She hosted the Spartan Awards, a mock ceremony for friends, and fondly remembers “second dinner” moments with her group. Mentors like Dr. Jena Whitaker, Matt Kanfesky, Patricia Walters, and Julie Koholer, along with friends such as Christie Ward and Kinsey Skjold, made her time at MSU unforgettable.

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  • Teaching Highlight: DH 340 Spring 2026 – Digital Studies in Practice with Titi Kou-Herrema

    Teaching Highlight: DH 340 Spring 2026 – Digital Studies in Practice with Titi Kou-Herrema

    DH 340 introduces students to the fundamentals of large language models and AI through concept‑building, and model testing. The class pairs technical exploration with a site visit to MSU’s own data center to ground discussions about the environmental impact of AI. Students work collaboratively to build a public‑facing GitHub Pages website that explains AI concepts to fellow Spartans in clear and accessible language.

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  • Alumni Highlight: Michael Griffin

    Alumni Highlight: Michael Griffin

    Finding Purpose Through Digital Humanities at MSU

    For Michael, Michigan State University became a place not of certainty, but of discovery. He started college as a Chemical Engineering major, but it didn’t take long for him to realize that engineering wasn’t where he saw himself long term. What did stick, though, were the moments spent working with people, especially through his roles as a Resident Assistant and campus tour guide which slowly pointed him toward higher education and student support.

    The Digital Studies (DS) minor ended up being a turning point in ways Michael didn’t expect. While it helped him build creative and ethical approaches to working with data, it also gave him something just as important: connection. When it came time to apply to graduate school, Michael realized he didn’t feel as closely connected to professors in his major as he did to those he worked with through Digital Studies. Those relationships mattered, and they made all the difference.

    Michael is quick to credit the people who helped him get where he is today. Kristen Mapes introduced him to Digital Studies and helped him see how creativity, data, and storytelling could come together. Kate Topham encouraged him to take the leap toward graduate school and supported him through the application process. Allysa Johnson helped Michael see that Student Affairs could be a real option for him, one that meant he didn’t have to force himself into a career path that never quite felt right.

    Through Digital Studies, Michael also had the chance to work on projects that felt meaningful beyond the classroom. One standout experience was collaborating with a group of students, the MSU Library, and the Monuments Men and Women Foundation to create a visualization highlighting artwork lost during World War II. Projects like this, along with lessons from Data Feminism, pushed him to think more deeply about how data is used and who it serves.

    Now, Michael is a master’s student in Student Affairs Administration at MSU and works as an Assistant Community Director in Residence Education and Housing Services, where he supports Resident Assistants and students during some of their most important moments. Looking back, he sees the Digital Studies minor as more than a minor, it was the place where things finally clicked. It gave him room to explore, people who believed in him, and the confidence to follow a path that felt true to who he is.

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  • What DH Means to Me: Julian Chambliss

    What DH Means to Me: Julian Chambliss

    Digital Humanities, for me, is an interdisciplinary practice that aims to build a more holistic view of the world and the experiences that shape it. I often frame my work as public digital humanities because I see DH not simply as a set of tools, but as a critical framework that bolsters our ability to understand identity and community through researching, teaching, and practice. Through projects such as Comics as Data North America (CaDNA), or community-centered digital archives such as Voices of the Black Imaginary, I approach DH as a form of generative intervention. These projects ask how metadata, platforms, and digital storytelling can correct erasure and support community self-representation. What DH means to me is the possibility of using digital technologies for pedagogical and institutional interventions that create inclusive histories, while imagining futures that move beyond the limits of the archive we have inherited.

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  • Undergraduate Student Profile: Theo Scheer

    Undergraduate Student Profile: Theo Scheer
    • What is your current major/minor?

    I will be graduating in May 2026 with a BA in journalism and minors in anthropology and digital studies.

    • How did you find Digital Studies? 

    Realizing I had a semester and a half left of free credits to take after completing the requirements for my degree, I looked through MSU’s list of minors. Digital studies in the arts and humanities stuck out. After speaking with Director Kristen Mapes, I was convinced and enrolled in the program.

    • What do you like most about Digital Studies?

    Studying culture with digital methods is an incredibly important tool in an age where more and more of our lives are being lived online. In my primary field of study, journalism, there’s a lot of handwringing over whether news organizations can adapt to our changing media environment and shortening attention spans. I see Digital Studies as part of the solution. If we want reach people, in journalism and beyond, finding innovative ways to tell stories is key.

    I also love the second prong of Digital Studies — the study of digital culture. As someone whose most formative moments growing up sometimes took place, I’m embarrassed to admit, on social media, I’ve long thought the internet deserved more anthropological attention. Let’s face it: like it or not, we’re all online all day. We might as well understand it — not as a void spending time and energy doesn’t count as living, but a real place with its own culture and customs, where real people connect and do real work.

    • How is Digital Studies enriching your academic experience?

    My academic experience informs my career choices, and as I look for post-graduation opportunities, my Digital Studies minor has expanded my search. Journalists with multimedia experience are in high demand, and thanks to the tools I’ve learned in my Digital Studies classes, I feel like a more qualified candidate.

    • What have you learned so far that you didn’t expect about Digital Studies?

    I didn’t know that the Global Digital Humanities Symposium was held at MSU! 

    • What advice might you have for other students as it relates to Digital Studies?

    I’m always surprised by the lack of fellow journalists in my Digital Studies classes. I’d encourage others pursuing majors in the College of Communications Arts and Sciences to consider the minor. If you’re someone like me whose classes are mostly focused on writing and editing, Digital Studies is a good way to dip your toes into data and multimedia reporting without doing a concentration in broadcast or information graphics.

    Do your research on topics you are passionate about. For a final project in one Digital Studies class, I originally chose the first idea that came to my mind, something that seemed easy and expected. A week or two later, I realized that I was missing out on an opportunity to do meaningful research in an area I was actually interested in. I changed the direction of my project, and the result — a network analysis where I mapped the relationships between prominent underground cartoonists of the 60s and 70s — took a lot more time, but was much more exciting. 

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  • Digital Humanities Distinguished Lecture Spring 2026 – Natalie Phillips

    Digital Humanities Distinguished Lecture Spring 2026 – Natalie Phillips

    Join us on Friday, March 13, 3:30PM-5PM, Main Library, Green Room (4th Floor West) as we are proud to feature Natalie Phillips for our 2026 Distinguished Lecture!

    Connecting Digital Humanities to Reader-Response and Audience Studies 

    This talk will explore how we can use DH tools, not only to analyze and archive texts, but to powerfully reconnect them with the experiences of diverse readers and audiences. We begin with a series of experiments that combine digital, cognitive, and literary methodologies to investigate what readers pay attention to and remember in both an fMRI study of reading a chapter from Jane Austen and a study of our emotional responses to a collection of sonnets. I discuss how the digital humanities tools used for each study crucially shift based on the research questions being asked, focusing on how these tools, joined with reader responses (post-scan essays, brain data, surveys, and beyond) can enrich our understanding of the textual patterns traditionally focused on in corpus-based literary analysis. In the second part of my talk, I share my most recent work in gathering an archive cataloging how individuals turned to creativity during Covid-19, including over 2,000 artworks from around the globe, as well as survey responses to how this creation affected them during the pandemic. Based on our experiences exhibiting this work at MSU and across the U.S., I share patterns in how audiences—specifically two IAH classes—responded to specific artworks and stories at MSU and our plans to use this feedback to create a virtual exhibition focused on cultivating practices of everyday creativity in healthcare workers. Ultimately, my goal is to show how methods from humanities, cognitive science, and DH can interconnect productively to produce research that includes multiple audiences, data sources, and styles of analysis to enrich our understanding of how we engage with literature and art.  

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  • Networking Letters of Revolution (2025)

    Networking Letters of Revolution (2025)

    Seed Grant Summer 2025 Report

    Gillian MacDonald and Morgan Fox

    Background

    The launch of the beta version of Networking the Letters of Revolution project on Github pages has so far been a success. The project itself, still nascent, is building upon the idea that communication and relationships during conflict are incredibly important in terms of political capital during chaos. The project’s success is reflected in the fact that the authors were invited to unveil at the Omohundro Institute’s Digital Project Coffee Hour in April 2025. Using one main corpus of letters, Leven and Melville Papers, the project visualized this world’s letter communications, places of importance, and most connected people. We were able to get all the data from the 599 letters contained in the digitized copy of the Leven and Melville papers into a usable dataset. This approach allows us to focus our attention on the interactions and relationships. The letters, memorandums, warrants, and petitions exchanged in this period are more than just networks of exchange. In the late seventeenth century, people were bound together through community, print, and dialogue. From the success of this first endeavor we were inspired to expand the project to include at least one more corpus of letters and any extant manuscripts from the Leven and Melville Papers that existed archivally.

    Project Description

    While the first phase of the project has been a success, we sought to expand and improve the project in a number of ways. Not only would this include adding more material but also building out the accessibility of the website and creating some materials for future users. For summer 2025 we aimed to commit another 650 letters from the manuscripts of the Duke of Hamilton (another important seventeenth century statesman) into the project as well as expand our analysis, explore more tools (primarily graphcommons), migrate the website to its own domain, and build an API.

    Our goals for the project remain consistent:

    • Visualize the world of communication from a corpora of letters.
    • Understand communication patterns during conflict and a regime change.
    • Parse group dynamics and information distribution from a chaotic period of transition.
    • Democratize the pursuit of knowledge and expand the potential for research in this area of research.

    This project brings together British transnational history and computational data science. The visualizations continue to show a story of connectivity over time because all those involved in this conflict have manuscript and print sources that do a very good job at capturing the difficulties in the reconstruction and administration of Scottish governance during such a chaotic period.

    We followed a similar process in compiling manuscript data into csv data for use in the tool. This time our data followed a different format to accommodate the new tool: graphcommons. The data was collected as follows: nodes (ID, name, description) and edges (from type, from name, edge type, to type, to name, weight). After creating a master spreadsheet information file, we then set about creating different sheets for different visualizations including people, places, keywords, nodes, and then edges. We also converted the Leven and Melville CSV data into this new format as well for importation into the tool. After we imported the data into graphcommons, the result was a very complicated web of connections.

    Figure 1. Combined Melville and Hamilton Graph

    Figure 1. Combined Melville and Hamilton Graph

    Outcomes

    Given our previous experience with networking from the previous iteration of the project, we elected to do some calculations using python and others in graphcommons. These tools were the foundation of building our API and integrating the Leven-Melville and Hamilton correspondence datasets. The groundwork established through Python libraries such as Networkx and Matplotlib, along with prior documentation and workflow design, provided a smooth transition into expanding this project.

    API

    Figure 2. API Letter Network Viewer

    Figure 2. API Letter Network Viewer

    The API was developed to provide access to two collections of letters, the Hamilton correspondence and the Leven-Melville correspondence. Each dataset was converted into a JSON file with consistent fields for sender, recipient, date, and other relevant metadata. In addition, the API includes filtering and download features, allowing users to retrieve subsets of the data as needed.

    Hamilton Letters

    Figure 3. Exploratory Hamilton Correspondence Heatmap

    Figure 3. Exploratory Hamilton Correspondence Heatmap

    An exploratory analysis of the Hamilton dataset consisted of using python tools and libraries such as Pandas, Matplotlib, and Networkx. This included examining patterns, identifying the most frequent correspondents, and visualizing the structure of Hamilton’s network. These analyses provided insight into the dynamics of his correspondence and served as a model for examining additional datasets as well as a comparison to the Melville network.

    Combining Hamilton and Leven Melville Data

    Figure 4. Combined Networking Spreadsheet

    Figure 4. Combined Networking Spreadsheet

    In order to analyze both networks, the next step was to combine the Hamilton and Leven and Melville letters into a combined dataset. This required some data processing and filtering of names and formats so that the two sets could be analyzed together. Once integrated, the data allowed cross-network comparisons and offered a broader view of correspondence across different figures and contexts.

    Leaflet Map

    Figure 5. Combined Leaflet Maps

    Figure 5. Combined Leaflet Maps

    Developing a Leaflet map of the combined networks provided a more visual and interpretable view of the correspondence. The map incorporates both the Hamilton and Melville networks, with each node representing a correspondent. Users can also toggle between datasets to view them individually. This visualization reveals geographic and relational patterns that are not immediately apparent in the raw CSV data.

    Future Directions

    Networking Letters of the Revolution has had the opportunity to expand with the addition of the Hamilton correspondence. With the initial network consisting of approximately 600 pages of material from the Leven-Melville papers; it has now grown considerably with about 650 pages of new content. This expansion and the integration of the two corpora have enabled new analyses of late seventeenth century correspondence dynamics. Looking ahead, future directions in this project include the continuation of expanding the network with the addition of the privy council and committee for plantations. This would allow a more comprehensive view of the data as well as expanding the scope of the network. We also plan to pursue additional funding to support labor costs, enhance digital infrastructure and tools, and cover domain expenses.

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