Over this past semester, I have had the honor of creating and organizing a Digital Public Humanities online archive. This archive holds a large quantity of digital audio, video, and photo files that students have created over the years through the work of the Center for Public Humanities. My goal was to design an easy-to-use and accessible place for students to put any new files or projects they create, as well as to be able to pull from past projects for current projects like Harrisburg Historical.
Having a curated collection like this one will significantly help future students. They will have the opportunity to be inspired by old projects or to re-invent those old projects into something new for their project. My Lincoln Cemetery video for Harrisburg Historical is an excellent example of this. I took a number of videos of Lincoln Cemetery and interviews with SOAL director Rachael Williams to create a brand new video for an article that Rachel Petroziello wrote on Lincoln Cemetery at Harrisburg Historical. I hope more students follow my lead on this project by creating new files and reusing old ones.
The Chester Way fellowship has been an excellent opportunity to continue my work with Dr. Pettegrew and the Center for Public Humanities. I have had the privilege to create many videos for Digital Harrisburg and the upcoming Harrisburg Historical site. The first one that started it all for me was my mini-documentary titled “Behind The Bronze.” I also worked with a team of students to capture an oral history project that focused on Calobe Jackson, Jr., and his work in Harrisburg. This semester, I created the video about Lincoln Cemetery for Harrisburg Historical’s article on the historic cemetery noted above. Each of the video projects featured unique people and their stories. They also were created to serve an educational and engaging purpose embedded into articles that feature the stories captured by the videos.
As I tie up the loose ends of this project and my time at Messiah, I am so grateful for the immense opportunities the Digital Public Humanities program brought me. It redefined my career path, and I couldn’t be happier with these new horizons. The Digital Public Humanities Projects and the program equip students to handle real-world projects, partnerships, and scholarship outside the classroom. This skill set is vital during school, especially for postgraduate life. I know I’ve been prepared by this program to go out and continue to do digital public humanities projects for various institutions or community partners. I’m excited to see what opportunities come my way.
Keli Ganey is a Senior History major at Messiah University with a concentration in Public History and a minor in Digital Public Humanities. Now graduating in December, Keli’s future plans include Graduate school to receive her Masters in Public History.
She holds the position of student assistant to the Dean of the School of Arts Culture and Society as well as Humanities scholarship program leadership council co-chair, President of the Messiah History Club, Public Historian for Emmy Nominated Yellow Breeches Television and serves on the editorial staff. Keli also is a Chester Way Fellow under Dr. David Pettegrew for her final semester. You can see her many works in various forms on her personal website.
Digital Harrisburg 