Georgia Virtual History Project

One of the new Faculty Research Clusters recently launched by the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts is the Digital Humanities Lab co-directed by Franklin faculty in the departments of English (Bill Kretzschmar) and history (Stephen Berry and Claudio Saunt). This initiative combines digital humanities courses and the strengthening of the university’s digital humanities research core through projects such as the Linguistic Atlas Project and eHistory.org. One of the initiatives aligned with the eHistory effort is the Georgia Virtual History Project, a nonprofit organization directed and co-founded by Willson Center Digital Humanities Fellow Christopher Lawton, also of the department of history.

The [Georgia Virtual History Project] is an effort to use new and interactive technologies to record the history of the state of Georgia and make it available to multiple audiences, from eighth-graders and the general public to college students and academic professionals.

In its first stage, GVHP was built around original research and data collected and analyzed by faculty, undergraduate, and graduate students in multiple departments at the University of Georgia and by advanced high school students at Athens Academy. It has field tested local Athens components of the project with K-12 students both at Athens Academy and in the Clarke County School District. In fall 2013, it will expand to begin incorporating additional content developed by students and faculty at both Georgia State University and Columbus State University.

GVHP’s goal is to spread this model out across the state, ultimately creating a system whereby students in countless communities can help build their own virtual records of their local past.

A website and an app are in the works for the GVHP, which will allow access to mini-documentaries and other historical resources to connect Georgians, and everyone, with the state's history as never before. Congratulations to these faculty members and the Willson Center for developing these very ambitious projects. Read more at the links to be sure to make the most of this incredible new resource.

Image: 18 centavos postage stamp design error of Philippines, identified as the Pagsanjan Falls in Luzon Is. but the image is of the Vernal Falls, CA, 1932, via Wikimedia Commons.