Glad to be Returning to CHI for ’22-’23

Hello everyone! I’m excited to be (re)joining the CHI fellowship as a senior fellow in the ’22-’23 cohort.

My name is Erica Holt, and I’m finishing my final year of my PhD in the History department. My dissertation focuses on reproductive work in China and Taiwan between 1950 and 1980. I’m exploring the roles of medicine and community in responding to infant and maternal health concerns as well as parts of large-scale public health initiatives. This year, I’m developing my CHI project to help visualize some aspects of this research, including population data, geographical space, and materia medica. Medical cultural heritage is particularly complex because of its relationship with colonial and institutional structures, and as a result my work highlights pathways of knowledge and healing that existed before the introduction of western medicine as well as how those modes of birth work endured.

Although I am a returning fellow, a few years have passed since my last CHI experience. In that time, I’ve explored DH@MSU, attended DH workshops, and taken courses on DH theory and pedagogy. This has motivated me to find ways to incorporate DH into the classroom both as scholarship and as projects. I’m looking forward to the opportunities to revisit and learn new digital approaches for use in the classroom.