Digitizing the Seminar Paper. A graduate student perspective on how digital tools shape scholarship

Abstract

In the early twentieth century, Grand Rapids, Michigan addressed a major political scandal, which was the tipping point of municipal politics in Grand Rapids between politics rooted in personal connections and those centered on business-like administration. However, reform moved slowly, hindered by the social and spatial relationships of the élite. Using digital tools in a digital history seminar shaped my analysis of these personal and spatial relations. As a vital step in my research process, the construction of a digital project not only informed my written argument, but also fundamentally shaped it. It also reveals the importance of small scale digital research projects, made accessible through the use of open access tools, in the ultimate widespread adoption of the digital humanities.

Keywords

• North American history
• spatial history
• corruption
• social network analysis
• digital humanities
• dynamic visualizations
• Storia del Nord America
• corruzione
• analisi dei social network
• informatica umanistica
• visualizzazioni dinamiche