Our Team – The Medieval Book

February 26, 2019

An update from Emily

Hi everyone,

I hope all of your individual projects are progressing well. It has been a while since I last blogged and I figure a little bit of an update is overdue. I have been assigned to the physical exhibit team for our final project. Last week I was tasked with documenting the measurements of the exhibit space we are going to put our artefacts inside. So I created a diagram with the measurements of the spaces we are looking at in the History Department and shared it with our group.

This coming week I am going to select another manuscript to display in the exhibit, along with another one that I had previously chosen. I am then going to write out information cards for each of the manuscripts I have chosen and share those with my team for further feedback. In addition to these tasks, I am in charge of determining which objects we put inside the display case to accompany the manuscripts. These objects are going to relate to the manuscripts and our class in one way or another, and I am going to write out information cards to be paired with each one.

Talking about our tasks in class yesterday made me realize just how close the exhibit launch date is (It was exactly a month away). This also got me thinking about how much has to be done in order for everything to be ready for the launch date. This is somewhat stressful, but I think we will be able to manage it well. Things are moving at a much faster pace these days and everything is getting very exciting!

See you in class!

EJG

September 25, 2018

Emily From HIST 4006

Hello fellow manuscript enthusiasts!

I am Emily and I will be helping to unlock the mysteries of one of our manuscripts over the next several months. I am in my fourth year of an undergraduate combined major of history and classics with a minor in philosophy. My research interests cover a large array of topics. If I were to try to narrow it down to a handful of key points of interest, I would have to say the conscription debates in Canada during World War One, ancient Greek pottery, and stoicism are three areas of research I thoroughly enjoy. As you can tell, these subjects are all vastly different from one another. In an ideal world, I wish to pursue a masters degree in public history or library and archival studies.

You may be wondering why I am taking a course on medieval manuscripts when it differs quite substantially from each of my research interests. I enjoy learning new things while challenging myself, and saw this course as the perfect opportunity to do so. I look forward to developing an understanding of part of the medieval world through my manuscript as well as opening it up to a larger public that otherwise would not have access to it. I have extremely limited knowledge on anything to do with computers and the internet. This concerns me, but I hope to develop my tech skills as we progress through this class. I have made my first social media account for this class and you can follow my twitter @emilyguigue if you wish to see me struggle to make sense of ‘tweeting’.

As for course material, I look forward to deciphering and decoding my manuscript while broadening my understanding of useful online tools and programs that can greatly aid historians.

All the best,

EJG

September 24, 2018

About Me: Jessica Huang

Hello, readers! My name is Jessica, and I am an undergraduate student in HIST4006: Digitizing Medieval Manuscripts. I’m looking forward to uncovering what these mysterious folios have to offer us over the next few months.

My academic and professional interests are wide-ranging, but primarily centre on queer history, public history, collections management, and heritage conservation. I am invested in finding creative, meaningful ways to foster engagement with history and connecting communities with the past, whether that’s in a formal or informal learning environment.

My hobbies include reading, listening to podcasts, and playing games (tabletop and video), and I have an immense soft spot for speculative fiction (fantasy, science fiction, horror, etc). I love, particularly, games and fiction that play with expectations and do interesting things with the established tropes of their genres.

On weekends, I can typically be found holed up underground with my fellow mole people at the Diefenbunker, Canada’s Cold War Museum, in Carp, ON. If you would like to connect with me, I can also be found on twitter at @idigmanuscripts.

September 24, 2018September 24, 2018

Getting to know Trina

Trina Etmanskie

Aspiring teacher, current student.

My name is Trina and I am one of the students currently working on digitizing Medieval Manuscripts! This semester I have found myself discovering what lies behind the words in this manuscript.

I am working towards finishing my undergraduate degree with hopes in starting a Bachelor of Education in September 2019. I am interested in learning new skills and techniques that I could apply to a classroom setting. My goal is to become an elementary school teacher in Ontario. My hope is that I can apply new, technological ways of research into the classroom even for those at a young age.

My academic interests are public history, understanding digital history as a tool for storytelling and introducing technology into the history classroom. My goal is to gain a knowledge base that will allow me to further my interest in education reform as well as utilize tools of digital history to inform and teach new, young learners. History is not of the past but of the present! With the correct tools, the young minds of tomorrow can truly grasp and understand the past in new lights.

My main area of study in my academics lays in the sphere of public history. It is interesting to begin to understand how we have displayed history in the public eyes. Although we can all view history (as it happens around us every moment) there are few moments that are preserved. Why do we choose these moments? And how do we preserve them? Further more, what does the way in which we preserve these moments say about us as a society?

I have knowledge using:

Twine

Github

Languages such as Markdown and basic Javascript

“There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning.”

– Jiddu Krishnamurti

Follow me along this academic journey as I work towards the task of discovering what medieval folio I have stumbled upon! I will be posting on Twitter and my blog with up to date information along this digital journey.

Twitter: @TEtmanskie