Summer Update #2: Intellectual Property and the Edward S. Curtis Collections

This is the second in a series of posts discussing the pilot project currently underway as part of our Mellon planning grant. Undergraduate research fellow and Scripps student, Amy Borsuk offers us an overview of the intellectual property rights research that we discovered was essential to a responsible use of the Curtis photographs.

We began the Edward S Curtis pilot project excited by the possibilities of work with public domain resources. We quickly learned, however, that we needed to better understand the ways in which Curtis’ photography has been established as legal entities that are subject to United States intellectual property laws. Just as any published book is owned and copyrighted by the author or any trademarked slogan requires paying a royalty for usage, Curtis’ photographs of Native Americans are a form of intellectual property. Their existence in public domain draws attention to the insufficiencies of intellectual property law in protecting property that does not specifically fit the legal qualifications for copyright, trademark or patent. Specifically, Curtis’ photos are within public domain, and therefore unprotected by copyright, trademark or patent. This means that they can be legally circulated for use by anyone. This free usage is promoted and encouraged by digital media and networks, from museum digital archives to social media sites. There are many consequences to this, both positive and negative, that this project aims to highlight and discuss.

Edward S. Curtis

One of the main negative consequences of the fact that Curtis’ photos are in public domain is that the photos are often used in ways that are offensive or inappropriate according to the tribe or nation that is being represented in the photo. Many Native American cultures consider the sanctity of important objects, individuals or beings to be present even in replications of the object. This means that photos depicting sacred objects or beings are as sacred as the object or being itself, and the photo needs to be protected from inappropriate gazes.

Graduate fellow Ulia Gosart is currently researching methods that are being developed and discussed by Native American tribes and nations, often in conjunction with the US government that could be used in order to regulate the exposure of sacred photographs. The goal of the research, and any legal reform that could arise from this research and work, is to give Native Americans legal agency and representation within the US legal system, whereas now the offences made against Native American tribes in terms of misuse of property often falls outside of legal protection.

Ulia’s research and work on this Scalar project aims to clarify the ways in which Native Americans are insufficiently represented within the US legal system, and the procedure that can and should be adopted for anyone who wants to use Native American intellectual property. The idea is to encourage a system that promotes direct discussion between Native American individuals and institutions, and governing bodies and individuals outside of the tribes who want to use Native American property correctly and respectfully.

All of these intricate issues have been synthesized in a brief essay written for both the Scalar project and the Scripps College Core I program, for all first year Scripps students. This year’s theme for the Core I lecture and seminar series is violence. Curtis’ photographs are being used as a primary source document to prompt discussions in seminar on violence towards Native Americans and the ways in which Native Americans and their cultural heritages have been taken away from them. The aim of the essay is to give first-year students a foundational understanding of the legal issues surrounding Native American rights.

This focus on a fair and empowering representation of Native Americans through the regulation of their property also contributes to one of the main goals of the Curtis pilot project, which is to examine the ways in which digital humanities can shift focus within discourse on Curtis away from him and back onto the subjects themselves: the Native Americans in the photos.

Summer Update

The CCDH team (Jacque Wernimont, Allegra Swift, Sam Kome, our graduate fellows David Kim, Ulia Gosart, and Heather Blackmore, and undergraduate researchers, Amy Borsuk and Bea Schuster) – has undertaken a summer pilot project arising from the Honnold-Mudd special collection holdings of Edward S. Curtis’ photography.

Original advertising postcard for an Edward S. Curtis lecture billed “A Picture Talk, with Stereopticon,” Seattle, n.d. Courtesy The Seattle Public Library, Edward S. Curtis scrapbook

Curtis (1868-1952) was a renowned and prolific photographer most known for his photographs of what he considered to be the  “vanishing race” of Native Americans in the western United States. Such influential men as Theodore Roosevelt, George Bird Grinnell, and J.P. Morgan funded his life’s work, a 22-volume set entitled The North American Indian. The set was issued in a limited edition from 1907-1930. Although many might not recognize his name, many of his images have become iconic. His work continues to circulate through varied media, from scholarly archives to tourist postcards.

Unlike more text-based projects such as Counting the Dead, this project allows us to explore digital humanities tools for working with images. The product of this pilot project will be a Scalar book, incorporating text, image, audio recordings, and video. A new interface for Scalar, which enables better viewing of a large number of images, will be launched with our project.

The book will explore issues of intellectual property around Native American representation, modern appropriations of and reactions to Curtis’ photographs, histories of race and technology, and endeavors to offer a nuanced perspective on Curtis’ work. Part of this effort includes a network visualization project – a network map of Curtis’ relationships with funders, family, friends, subjects, and tribes, which we hope will give a clearer picture of the many dependencies of Curtis’ self-styled “solitary” effort.

In addition to the work that the grant team is doing, several Claremont College faculty are contributing pieces for the Scalar book. These pieces explore Curtis’ work in the context of a history of portraiture, histories of music/sound recording, and in the context of Hollywood film-making.

As with most digital humanities projects, many of our challenges have been around scope. Curtis’ photography has had such a profound impact on Native American representation in American culture over the past century that there are many topics to discuss. A study of Curtis also opens up many possibilities for interdisciplinary scholarship, and we have been exploring topics from ranging legal issues to fan studies. We hope that the Scalar book will be a good research resource for undergraduate and graduate students, and that they can continue the project through producing their own work.

– Beatrice Schuster

Mellon Digital Research and Scholarly Communications Fellows

I am delighted to be welcoming three fantastic scholars to the Claremont Center for Digital Humanities as Mellon Digital Research and Scholarly Communication Summer Fellows. We had a great response to our call and the work that graduate students are doing in the southland is really impressive. I wished we were able bring everyone on board.

I hope to write up a more detailed discussion about Heather’s, David’s, and Ulia’s work on the Curtis project soon. They each bring a much needed area of expertise to our project. In the meantime, I introduce them to the community by way of their brief bios. If you’re in Claremont and would like to meet them, let me know and we’ll have lunch! — Jacque.

Heather Blackmore is a PhD student at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. Her research interests include documentary media studies, the cultural histories of technology, the relationships of emotion and touch to media and material culture, the history of animation, and studies of festivals and curatorship.

David Kim is a Ph.D. candidate in Information Studies at UCLA, focusing on information design, new media and digital humanities, and race, ethnicity and gender.  Drawing from case studies in both digital humanities and community-based arts organizations, his dissertation addresses the cultural politics of representation in digital archives and data, exploring their epistemic conditions for understanding minoritarian identity formations in the U.S. in the broader context of the current information economy and digital culture.  Prior to UCLA, he has worked with various cultural institutions as archivist and design consultant, and received his MA in English from NYU.

Ulia Popova (Gosart) holds PhD (UCLA, Information Studies) and MLS (Southern Conn. State University). Her research focuses on the protection of indigenous peoples rights to culture and political participation.

Summer Fellows Positions 2013

Mellon Digital Research and Scholarly Communication Fellow

Claremont Center for Digital Humanities, Claremont University Consortium

With the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Claremont Center for Digital Humanities offers three Digital Research and Scholarly Communication Summer Fellowships to begin June 2013. Research Fellows will join our pilot project to develop a digital learning and research resource on the work of Edward S. Curtis.

We are particularly interested in individuals whose work focuses on the following areas central to the project: 20^th century American history, race in the Americas, native American removal and/or contemporary culture, the history of photography and/or documentary technology. Successful candidates will be able to speak to the affordances and challenges of digital tools and technology for engaging with the above areas of interest. While we are not looking for a specific technical skill, we are looking to bring in scholars who are conversant with uses of digital technology in humanities research and the fields of Digital Humanities, broadly conceived.  We will be authoring our digital resource in Scalar and will train, if necessary.

The project is based in Claremont, Ca at the Center for Digital Humanities, which is housed in the Honnold-Mudd Library. Fellowships will run from early June to August 31, 2013. Fellows will be asked to commit the equivalent of 20 hours/week of work for 11 weeks. The maximum stipend is $5,000.00. While we prioritize in-person collaboration, we also recognize that we are employing emerging scholars who may already have research and conference commitments. Schedules will be set in collaboration with the project lead. While the fellowship is for the summer only, there may be further collaborative opportunities for Fellows, including conference presentation and publication.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

•  Assist in the development and implementation of a digital learning and research resource on the work of Edward S. Curtis.
•  Contribute area expertise to the pilot project – this may be in the form of technical, pedagogical design, scholarly communication, or content expertise.
•  Collaborate with project faculty and staff to write content for the resource. All fellows will be listed as co-authors on the publication.
•  Contribute to the write up of the project white papers, documentation, and final report.

To Apply: Please send a letter of interest detailing areas of expertise and a current C.V. to Jacque Wernimont at jwernimo@scrippscollege.edu by May 27^th.

 

Claremont University Consortium, Claremont Center for Digital Humanities

The Claremont Center for Digital Humanities is a consortial effort of the seven institutions of the Claremont Colleges (Scripps, Harvey Mudd, Pitzer, Pomona, Claremont McKenna, Claremont Graduate University, and Keck Graduate Institute). Housed in the Honnold-Mudd library, CCDH goals are to transform teaching and research in Claremont through the use of digital technologies and methods and the creation of a community of digital scholarly practice. The center is currently in the planning phase and is developing robust relationships with local faculty, as well as with other southland Digital Humanities centers and initiatives. The pilot project for the center is designed to highlight the unique expertise of Claremont faculty and our outstanding special collections holdings. This project also demonstrates our commitment to engaging groups and topics currently under-represented in Digital Humanities scholarship.

Claremont University Consortium (CUC) is the central coordinating and support organization for a highly regarded cluster of seven independent colleges known as The Claremont Colleges located in Southern California. CUC is a nationally recognized educational model for academic support, student support and institutional support services to meet the needs of 6,300 students and 2,300 faculty and staff.

DH at the 5 colleges – proposal deadline March 8, 2013

Reminder! — Deadline is Friday, March 8th 2013!
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The Five College Consortium is exploring a June program introducing Digital Humanities to an audience of librarians and IT staff at our institutions. The Consortium in western Massachusetts includes Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, four liberal arts colleges and one ARL. We are interested in identifying speakers who can discuss digital humanities vision or digital humanities work in liberal arts settings targeted at undergraduate teaching and research. We are open to a variety of interpretations on/definitions of the phrase “digital humanities”’ and its intersection with other initiatives around teaching with technology in the undergraduate curriculum. We envision a panel followed by breakout sessions during which we will ask our panelists to participate in small group discussion. Possible topics for discussion include:
–What does it mean to do work in this field in liberal arts colleges?
–How to help faculty navigate shifting technologies
–Mapping out new collaborative relationships (inside our institutions and across the Five Colleges)
–Where should conversation around research/teaching/technology be happening?
–Content mashups and the development of new kinds of “collections”
–The library’s role in a supporting digital culture
–What professional skill sets are needed to support digital humanities work?
–Infrastructure/services/copyright/IP

If you have interest in participating on our panel and in small group discussion, we would like to hear from you! Please submit a brief proposal online at http://bit.ly/dhproposals by March 8th, describing your interest in the areas outlined above and your interest in speaking to our audience. We are looking towards mid-June for the program itself and will confirm dates with the identified speakers. Please direct questions to:

Erin Stalberg,
Chair, Five Colleges Consortium Digital Environment Development and Coordinating Committee (DEDCC)
Director of Discovery and Access
Library, Information, and Technology Services
Mount Holyoke College
estalber@mtholyoke.edu
413.538.2228

For further information on the Five College Consortium., please see: https://www.fivecolleges.edu/

Claremont Digital Humanities Survey

Claremont Digital Humanities Survey

Following on our 8 great campus events and a number of one-on-one conversations, we’d like to gather a bit more information about the needs of Claremont faculty, staff, and students. It’s a short, 10 question, survey, which will help us as we move forward in the grant application process. Share your thoughts!

THATCamp Feminisms at Scripps

In the latest local DH news, Scripps will be hosting a feminist “THATCamp” this March 15-17, 2013. THATCamps (The Humanities and Technology Camps) are digital humanities “unconferences” in which people can come together to discuss interdisciplinary approaches to learning, collaborating, and networking. They are quite a bit different (and generally more productive) than traditional conference-style events, as participants are encouraged to use session time to create, build, write, hack, and solve problems. THATCamp Feminisms will a multisite weekend of discussion about feminisms and the digital humanities. There will be workshops on various tools and technologies, as well as a day of discussion about feminist politics, gender, digital tools, and digital teaching. Students are welcome, but should register early to gain a spot as a Feminist DH Fellow.

We will also be hosting a feminist Wikistorm over the weekend in collaboration with THATCamp Feminisms South (and possibly Duke HASTAC and the Fembot Collective), in order to increase the feminist content on Wikipedia. If you’ve never heard of this before, here’s a link to an event that was hosted here in Claremont in the fall: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/FemTech_Edit-a-thon.

To register, and for more information, you can visit the official THATCamp Feminisms West website @ http://feminismswest2013.thatcamp.org/. Registration is free. We can only accomodate 75 faculty/staff/graduate students and 25 Undergrad Fellows so register early!

What are the Digital Humanities and the CCDH?

A “where to start” guide and campus conversations

Among the many things that people first ask about Digital Humanities is the “where do I start?” question, one that is often accompanied by a look of trepidation. While there are a number of really helpful resources, a new one is worth talking about. Jennifer Adams’ and Kevin B. Gunn’s “Digital Humanities: Where to Start” in College and Research Library News is extremely helpful. They give a very brief background to the field (a “new” field that’s 60 years old!) and a selected resource list. While the piece is targeted to librarians, there is a lot there that will be of use to anyone new to the field.

Our upcoming DH campus conversations will be another great way to get a sense of what constitutes Digital Humanities work and to discuss the proposed Claremont Center for Digital Humanities. The first one is Oct 30th on the Harvey Mudd campus – Hoch Dining Hall -, as part of their “Bite of Learning” series. Grab your lunch and join us for a presentation and Q&A. Also check out the calendar of other events.

Evaluating Digital Scholarship recap

~ Allegra Swift Gonzalez

The NITLE seminar on Evaluating Digital Scholarship held on October 10, 2012 is a must hear/read for those “who work in digital media and faculty members or administrators from Network colleges who are charged with evaluating the digital scholarship produced by colleagues.”

Access to the recording is only available to the colleges participating in NITLE, so if you are from Scripps College, Pomona College or Harvey Mudd College , please contact Mary McMahon at Pomona ITS. The slides can be accessed here.

Alison Byerly, College Professor at Middlebury College, Visiting Scholar in Literature, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and seminar leader for digital scholarship and digital humanities

Byerly spoke about the digital humanities as being new on the radar screen of many who hold responsibility for tenure review and course support. In this new-ish area of study, Byerly has found that there is a need for people to hear more about evaluation from the evaluators’ side.

Slide credit: Alison Byerly

For those faculty working in the field, you will need to educate your colleagues. Continuously. This could be a daily job but not something that can what until the tenure review process is in full swing.

Early education = greater margin of success (really, this applies to just about everything):

• define and engage
• document your specific role and who has collaborated/assisted
• explain the significance
• look for opportunities – define and explain how DH fits into greater context

Evaluators:

• Educate yourself
• Review and assess any project in the medium in which it was created (example: don’t print out pages of a website) – this is already happening in the already sciences
• Recognize that the collaborative nature of DH should be seen as a positive. Not being single author should not diminish stature of the contribution
• Consult specialists in relevant disciplines
• Assess candidate’s work in relation to overall institutional expectations

Different examples of works in new presentations and publication format:

• NINES.org
• The Old Bailey online
• The Yellow Nineties online

New-ish concepts:

• Complex TV: the poetics contemporary television storytelling by Jason Mitchell
• “blogging for tenure”
• databases or programming
• Docuscope: a text analysis environment with interactive visualization tools
• Anvil academic – scholarly publishing outside the traditional realm, “an open-access, post-monograph publisher of new, complex forms of scholarly argument.”
• alternative citation measurements

On the tenure track?

• seek letters from outside reviewers
• save and document the feed back on contribution to academic trajectory
• be sure to clear with with those who give feedback that you’d like to use it as part of tenure file

Drew University Library was approached by deans office about faculty electronic portfolios – this concept is gaining ground

More advice:

• The tenure process as is is not very good at understanding work in process such as ongoing websites.
• Document efforts
• This is something that is changes
• Look at language for promotion and tenure reviews
• Just our framing of our works rely on stricts terms don’t work for this flexible arena
• * Get buy-in before starting or submitting the work. Begin advocacy work early and sustain it.

I highly recommend taking a look at the slides and picking up the standard for DH acceptance and understanding.