Group Members: Ankit Sanghi, Conor Gormally
Topic & Project Objectives
We propose to create a digital humanities project that explores the changing geographical demographics of Carleton students between 1955 and 2015. The core digital element of our DH project will be a map that allows users to visually compare the geographic origins of students over time. Additionally, we plan to graphically display the changes in numbers of Carleton students from other states, regions and countries over this period.
Methodology
We plan to use Zoobook data from the Carleton archives. To streamline the process, we will use Zoobooks pulled at 5-year intervals, starting with 1955. Each Zoobook is available in PlainText format, which we will convert into a csv file for ease of use. We will analyze the percentage of students outside of Minnesota, the Midwest, and the United States for change over time and shifts in regional demographics of students. We plan to utilize ArcGIS for the mapping part of our project, which will enable us to provide a user-friendly experience and allow us to clearly differentiate data sets of different years. We will use a graphing software (potentially Tableau) to provide intuitive graphs for changes in percentile and amount of students from various regions. The ArcGIS map and graphs will have interfaces that allow users to filter the data as they choose.
Timeline
Sprint 1 (2/9 – 2/16): Catalog and convert geographic data for all 12 Zoobooks
Sprint 2 (2/17 – 2/21): Create interactive map with ArcGIS
Sprint 3 (2/22 – 2/25): Create interactive graphs (with Tableau?)
Sprint 4 (2/26 – 3/2): Create and beautify WordPress site, populate with narrative & contents
Sprint 5 (3/2 – 3/6): Create and prepare presentation for 3/7
DH Project We Can Emulate
The Digital Scholarship Lab at the University of Richmond created Hidden Patterns of the Civil War, which uses Digital Humanities tools to reveal patterns across time and space that are not easily seen. In particular, the Visualizing Emancipation project appears to use a GIS software to create a map that visualizes where and when emancipation occurred during the American Civil War. We hope our map can be as elegant.
