This website served as a space for reflection from the graduate students in the Digital History Fellowship. Each group of students contributed their stories and experiences, and provided a fresh look at digital history in graduate programs. The program ceased to use this website in 2018 and the last cohort of students was accepted in 2020. The program has since been discontinued but this webpage is being left up in flattened form for historical purposes.
First awarded in 2012, the Digital History Fellowship was funded by the Provost’s PhD Program Awards, and provided graduate students with stipends and an opportunity to undertake practicum courses in the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University. Students discussed previous projects completed by the Center to better understand how digital history has developed since 1994, while simultaneously offering new perspectives on present and future projects. They also worked within the Education, Public Projects, and Research divisions to learn new skills and contributed to current projects.
Cohorts
2017-2018
LaQuanda Walters Cooper [Mentor: Jessica Dauterive]
Came to GMU from: University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Research Interests: U.S. History, African American Public History, Digital History
Greta Swain [Mentor: Laura Crossley]
Came to GMU from: Taylor University
Research Interests: Early American Social History, Digital History, Public History
2016-2017
Jessica Dauterive [Mentor: Andrea Odiorne]
Came to GMU from: University of New Orleans
Research Interests: 20th Century US History, Music History, Digital History, Public History
Laura Crossley [Mentor: Lacey Wilson]
Came to GMU from: Knox College
Research Interests: Gilded Age and Progressive Era, Native American History, Digital History
2015–2016
Andrea Odiorne
Came to GMU from: Virginia Commonwealth University
Research Interests: 20th Century U.S. History, Educational Film, Gender and Sexuality
Lacey Wilson
Came to GMU from: Illinois College
Research Interests: Native American history and public history
2014–2015
Jordan Bratt [Mentor: Jannelle Legg]
Came to GMU from: Brigham Young University
Research Interests: Digital History, US Religious History, Mormon History
Stephanie Anne Seal [Mentor: Amanda Regan]
Came to GMU from: The University of Southern Mississippi
Research Interests: Loyalism in Virginia during the American Revolution, War & Society, Digital History, US History
Alyssa Toby Fahringer [Mentor: Anne McDivitt]
Came to GMU from: Virginia Commonwealth University, University of Pittsburgh
Research Interests: 19th century South, women and gender, digital history, public history
2013–2014
Jannelle Legg [Mentor: Ben Hurwitz]
[See posts]
Came to GMU from: Gallaudet University
Research Interests: Deaf History, Disability History and Church History.
Anne McDivitt [Mentor: Spencer Roberts]
[See posts]
Came to GMU from: University of Central Florida
Research Interests: Video Game History and Masculinity, Digital History, and Public History
Amanda Regan [Mentor: Amanda Morton]
[See posts]
Came to GMU from: California State University, San Marcos
Research Interests: Women’s physical culture 1880-1940
2012–2013
Ben Hurwitz
[See posts]
Came to GMU from: College of William and Mary
Research Interests: 19th century history of South Africa
Amanda Morton
[See posts]
Came to GMU from: Ohio State University
Research Interests: diseases and warfare, medieval history
Came to GMU from: Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario
Research Interests: digital history and methodology, gendered histories, and digital humanities pedagogy
HI Amanda – really enjoyed the blog post and wanted to re-iterate your final comments about “Good history teaching is first and foremost based on good historical thinking skills. Digital tools and technology help to guide, challenge, and engage students but they don’t do that on their own. The technology must be paired with teaching skills to critically engage history.”
This is exactly our view at the UK National Archives. We use lots of technology for delivering teaching and online resources to students using our collection but never forget that developing historical understanding is the key outcome of our work. The technology can really help focus students thinking on particular tasks e.g. close analysis of documents; thinking about how selection of sources affects interpretation; and substantiating judgements based on evidence from sources.
We are hoping to carry out more systematic research into the impact of using techonology with archival material on student learning and the development of historical understanding. Maybe we can share our findings at somepoint in the future.
Keep up the good work!