This workshop offers a novel opportunity for arts, humanities and social science researchers to learn about creating open research data from your PhD project, and curating your own digital archive. While we will cover a range of different ways of archiving your data, we will focus on how to create your own digital DIY academic archive using the open source content management system Omeka. We will address why you might do this and the potential benefits for your own research practice. We approach archiving as a practice that can be designed into projects from the beginning and that is oriented to both present and future use of research materials and data, your own use and others.
We will cover:
- Archival genealogies: a transdisciplinary approach to archiving, drawing on ‘the archival turn’, archival theory and practice, the open data movement, reuse of social science data, and community archiving. Importantly we draw attention to the fact that innovations across all of these fields are predominantly being driven by insights from feminist, queer, decolonial theory and politics.
- Archiving as method and practice: different ways of archiving and a practical introduction to Omeka, as an accessible, open source platform
- Archiving as an ethic of care for data: reframing data management by thinking through the data life cycle, and reframing data management as an ethic of care
- Archiving as a form of publishing and knowledge exchange: archiving and curating exhibitions as a way of engaging with participants and other publics.
We will reflect throughout on the importance of considering ethical issues – in fact understanding archiving data as a crucial practice of caring for our research – as well as covering recent changes to research governance including GDPR, and moves to open research.
No prior knowledge of archiving, open data, or digital platforms such as Omeka, is required. The workshop will include time to work on your own data with support of the teaching team, or opportunity to work with a demonstrator site.
The workshop will involve a mix of mini-lectures, discussion of participants’ own projects, showcases of exemplar archives, a walk-through the behind the scenes of uploading data to Omeka, as well as some virtual ‘hands-on activities’, including co-creating an online exhibition.
Session 1: Monday 10 May, 2.00pm-4.30pm
Session 2: Wednesday 12 May, 2.00pm-4.30pm
Session 3: Monday 17 May, 2.00pm-4.30pm
Session 4: Wednesday 19 May, 2.00pm-4.30pm