Thursday, November 13
12:00-2:00pm
Main Library, Digital Scholarship Lab, Flex Space (2nd Floor, West)

Join the Digital Humanities at MSU for our third annual DH Research Showcase in the MSU Main Library, Digital Scholarship Lab, Flex Space (2nd Floor, West), where recipients of DH summer funding will discuss their projects, and where we invite all faculty, staff and students working on DH projects to share their projects in process.

Please feel free to bring your own lunch.

The interdisciplinary field of digital humanities (DH) aims to bring together humanistic inquiry and digital technologies, organizing new modes of archival research, developing computer-aided methodologies for answering humanistic questions, curating digitized archives of all kinds, bringing digital platforms into the classroom in creative ways, and engaging critically with the culture of new media.

The Showcase is also serving as a donation drive for the MSU Food Bank and Basic Needs Program. Please consider bringing donation items to the Showcase (see below for full details), and/or donating online to support this crucial effort.

Schedule

12:00 – 12:02PM: Introduction

12:02 – 12:17PM: Jon Keune: Creating, Maintaining, and Expanding the Bhakti Virtual Archive (BHAVA)

After briefly introducing the Bhakti Virtual Archive (BHAVA) project and website, I will describe the development timeline from receiving a DH@MSU Summer Seed Grant in 2018, through unsuccessful and successful external grant proposals, the website’s growth through the pandemic and first full incarnation in 2022, and its continued maintenance, enhancement, and new audiences.

12:20- 12:35PM: Gillian MacDonald and Morgan Fox: Expanding the Network: New Nodes and Relationships in the Revolution (1688-1692)

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.
Read the Seed Funding Report

12:35-12:40PM: Q&A

12:40-12:55PM: Blaire Morseau: Neshnabé Nengosêk Kenomagewen (Potawatomi Star Knowledge)

Neshnabé Nengosêk Kenomagewen (Potawatomi Star Knowledge) is an Indigenous-centered digital humanities effort to sustain and share Potawatomi constellations, celestial stories, and teachings about the movements of the skies. The project’s core purpose is intergenerational: to return star knowledge to everyday use among Potawatomi families, especially youth, while offering non-Native learners a respectful window into a living intellectual tradition.
Read the Seed Funding Report

1:00 – 1:15PM: Destiny Canning: A Public-Facing StoryMap for ER, Urgent Care, and Clinic Navigation

This work-in-progress pairs humanistic inquiry into health communication, plain-language, translation, equity, with ArcGIS StoryMaps to curate an accessible directory of emergency departments, urgent cares, and safety-net clinics. We describe our metadata scheme, sourcing and verification workflow, and design decisions that prioritize readability and multilingual access. We also share early findings from user testing with Lansing community partners and international students at MSU, reflecting on ethics, accessibility, and the public-humanities role of DH in improving health literacy and care-seeking decisions.

1:20-1:35PM: Jesse Draper: Digitizing the Radical Historians Newsletter

In collaboration with the U.S. Intellectual History Association, the department of History, and LEADR, H-Net digitized The Radical Historians Newsletter (1969–2003). This project involved digitally scanning original copies of the newsletter, creating a Drupal-based home for the collection on H-Net Spaces, and storing the originals with the MSU Libraries Radicalism Special Collections.

1:35-1:55PM: Q&A

1:55 – 2:00PM: Wrap up

MSU Food Bank and Basic Needs Program Donation Drive

Please bring items to the Research Showcase and we will deliver them!

The MSU Food Bank and Basic Needs Program provides essential food and personal care items to students and scholars experiencing food insecurity. Serving over 350 orders each week and supporting more than 2,000 individuals monthly, the program plays a vital role in ensuring Spartans have access to healthy, culturally required food options that reflect the diversity of the MSU community.

Items that are most needed include:

Quick Meal Options

• Microwaveable meals (rice bowls, quinoa, mac & cheese, instant noodles)
• Canned soups, stews, and chili (consider pop tops, many students do not have can openers)
• Ready-to-eat rice or grain pouches
• Canned beans and lentils

Protein Sources

• Peanut butter or nut alternatives (e.g., sunflower butter, almond butter)
• Canned fish, poultry, pork, or beef
• Protein bars or shelf-stable shakes
• Shelf-stable and plant-based milk (soy, oat, almond, coconut, rice)
• Shelf-stable tofu or chickpea-based proteins (check allergen-free)

Culturally Required Food Options

• Rice (white, brown, jasmine, basmati), quinoa, lentils, couscous
• Culturally required spices (e.g., cumin, turmeric, chili powder, curry powder)
• Condiments such as soy sauce, hot sauce, sriracha, chili paste

Breakfast and Snacks

• Instant oatmeal, cereal, or granola (including allergen-free alternatives)
• Crackers, pretzels, and popcorn (including gluten-free)
• Dried fruit and nuts
• Applesauce and fruit cups

Cooking and Pantry Staples

• Cooking oil (olive, vegetable, canola, palm, avocado, sunflower, coconut, sesame oil, peanut,
  grapeseed or safflower oil
• Flour, sugar, and baking mixes (including gluten-free)
• Pasta, rice, and sauces (including gluten-free)
• Salt, pepper, and seasonings (including gluten-free)
• Broth or bouillon cubes (including gluten-free)
• Vinegar

Personal and Household Essentials

• Toilet paper and paper towel
• Shampoo and conditioner suitable for multiple hair types
• Body wash, deodorant, lotion, lip balm
• Toothpaste and toothbrushes
• Menstrual hygiene products
• Laundry detergent and dish soap

Baby and Family Support Items

• Diapers and wipes
• Infant formula and baby food
• Children’s snacks (fruit pouches, cereal bars)