From early online experiments to ambitious, grant-funded collaborations, the HDW’s first two decades highlight its impact on research, teaching, and the future of the humanities.
Among the many participants in the Humanities Digital Workshops, two faculty members in the Department of History were recently noted for their influential projects in an article recapping the project’s successes over the past twenty years.
Peter Kastor's Project: Creating a Federal Government
At a moment when Americans are engaged in a fierce debate about the role and purpose of government, this project reconstructs that early federal bureaucracy. Developed by Peter Kastor, the Samuel K. Eddy Endowed Professor, Creating a Federal Government compiles career profiles of more than 38,000 early federal employees, generates an interactive map of their locations, and analyzes the emerging federal system. The project uses digital history to reveal how the Founders envisioned and built the machinery of government.
Steven B. Miles' Project: West River Inscriptions
Commercial networks undergirded the global diaspora of Cantonese migrants from China’s Pearl River delta in early modern and modern times. Led by Steven B. Miles, a professor of history and director of Global Studies, the project created a database of stone inscriptions to trace commercial networks supporting one important Cantonese migration trajectory, along southern China's West River (Xijiang 西江) basin.
Learn more about the projects possible through the Humanities Digital Workshop.
