Hi there!
Welcome to HIST 295, I’m glad you’re here! This is our space to post weekly blogs using the prompts that are assigned on the schedule page. I am Dr. Andrella, a historian and postdoctoral fellow of Digital Humanities at Knox. I hold a Ph.D. in U.S. and Native American history (with a minor in Latin American history), as well as a graduate certificate in Digital Humanities. I am currently working on my first book which re-conceptualizes Reconstruction as a national process that entailed both the restoration of the South and territorial expansion in the trans-Mississippi West.[1] I use Montana Territory as a case study to examine the interplay of local and federal forces on the ground, as well as how these dual designs ultimately produced a more exclusionary, unstable, and violent nation.
This term, I am most looking forward to the weeks on digital art history and text analysis. One thing that make me feel nervous about the course is how it will mesh with Native history. When I last taught this course, it was thematically centered on the history of slavery in the United States. Through the process of adapting this course for Native topics and themes, I’ve learned that there is only a small (but growing) body of work in Native digital history. I hope that through this course, we are able to curate and compile resources to make the digital work of Indigenous scholars accessible to others.
I also hope that you will find our readings and conversations thoughtfully engaging. While there is a lot of content to work through, I want you to try your best and at the very least attempt the tools that we use. More often than not, these tools will be challenging and there will be lots of speed bumps in learning how to use them. “Productive failure” is a real thing; sometimes learning how something doesn’t work is the first step towards understanding how it does work. In fact, writing about your experience– the successes AND the failures– is exactly what I expect in your weekly blog posts.
I think that teaching this course in a “post” [ongoing] pandemic world draws even more attention to the importance of how we can apply digital skills and technology to learn history (or any subject). At the same time, however, these digital demands reveal equally large global problems like limited access to computers or the internet, the misuse of data, and other ethical issues. Therefore, living and working in the digital age requires us to grapple with the limitations, shortcomings, and problems of “the digital.” Being open to learning new technologies and skills will expand your worldview as you take these lessons and apply them to other aspects of your coursework, career, or helping your community.
[1] This book will be adapted from my dissertation, “When the War Raged On: Montana Territory, the Politics of Authority, and National Reconstruction.” See Jennifer Andrella, “When the War Raged on: Montana Territory, the Politics of Authority, and National Reconstruction,” 2022, Michigan State University. http://ezproxy.msu.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/when-war-raged-on-montana-territory-politics/docview/2730324833/se-2.
