Hosted and administered by the Department of Anthropology in partnership with MATRIX: The Center for Digital Humanities and Social Sciences at Michigan State University, The Cultural Heritage Informatics Initiative is a platform for interdisciplinary scholarly collaboration in the domain of digital cultural heritage. In addition, the initiative strives to equip students with the methodological skills necessary to creatively apply information, communication, and computing technology to cultural heritage materials, questions, and challenges.
At the end of Spring Semester 2019, I have finally finished my first website project “Multiculturalism in German Football World” with the full support from the Cultural Heritage Informatics (CHI) Fellowship. As a beginner in the field of digital humanities, I have very limited experience with using data visualization tools, reading and writing codes, etc. This project is simply a starting point for me to try out the tools out there and to gain experience with basic computer languages, such as HTML, CSS, and Javascript.
As a German Studies scholar, my research primarily focuses on the perception of multiculturalism in the German Football World and the relationship between football and national identity. I intended to use this website as a platform to present facts I have summarized, which will be used as evidence to support my dissertation arguments in the future. This project views the concept “Multiculturalism” from two levels: national and regional. On the national level, I traced and mapped out the heritage of each player who played for the German national team in the World Cups from 1990 to 2018. As the map shows, the national team has become more multicultural-orientated after reunification. On the regional level, I examined the existence of a certain cultural phenomenon that happens in the football world, hooliganism, and how certain fan groups borrow political ideologies to justify their behaviors that are anti-multiculturalism. In addition, I also added a single page that summaries and update the social media posts related to players that have multicultural backgrounds.
During the process of creating this website, not only did I gained the skill of using digital tools and building website, but also the ability for solving the issue through the internet, my colleagues, and other professionals. Trying to acquire a computer language or simply trying to understand how does website work from the other end is quite challenging for a beginner. After all the frustration I experienced and all the coffee I drunk along the way, I still would like to say “it has been a fun journey and I hope I could do it again soon.”
In the late 1500’s-early 1600’s, England experienced an explosion of plays written, performed, and attended. Concurrently, England witnessed an influx in the publication of artistic manuals.
The Saharan World at a Glance (SWAG) is a mobile-first digital text book. The site was designed specifically with incoming undergraduate students in mind. The site’s content is framed around the Saharan World: the North African coast, the Sahara, and the Sahel.
The Santa Clara Valley Medical Center (SCVMC) Historic Cemetery was re-discovered in 2012 due to construction related to expansion and seismic retrofitting at the west end of the hospital property.
