A MITH Digital Dialogue
Tuesday, April 11, 12:30-1:45
MITH Conference Room, McKeldin Library B0135

MITH is pleased to present two more of its current Fellows discussing their ongoing work in digital humanities. Please join us for these two presentations.

“The Multilingual Thesaurus for Medieval Studies”
PATRICIA COSSARD, Subject Librarian for Architecture and Historic Preservation

The Multilingual Thesaurus for Medieval Studies (MLTMS) is an attempt to build both a research database and a software tool. As opposed to a traditional thesaurus, MLTMS will work as both a termbase for web-based search and retrieval as well as a research database for the deconstruction of historical hierarchical ontologies as expressed by contributing classification systems. MLTMS is intended as a long-term and inter-disciplinary project focused on the European Middle Ages. Currently in its infancy, the software will ultimately researchers to do web-based search and retrieval of both primary evidence (in corpora)and argument (in journals and books). The technolgoy will be open source. <http://www.mith2.umd.edu/thes/>.

“Creating Digital Versions of Early 20th Century African-American Texts: Nannie Burroughs’ 1928 ‘What the Negro Wants Politically.’”
MICHELE MASON, Doctoral Candidate, Communication and MITH Winnemore Dissertation Fellow

The Washington Post called the 1928 presidential election, "the bitterest and most baffling presidential campaign of more than a generation." During the campaign, civil rights leader Nannie Burroughs campaigned tirelessly for the Republican party. As a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, Burroughs issued statements through the press and delivered dozens of speeches on behalf of Herbert Hoover. When the election was over Burroughs wrote "What the Negro Wants Politically," offering a brief analysis of the racial dimensions of the election and issuing a set of political demands to the Republican party. Published in several African-American newspapers, Burroughs’ article reached a large national audience. In this presentation I will discuss the significance of Burroughs’ editorial, along with the advantages a digital version of the text offers.

Coming up @MITH, *Monday,* April 17th 11:00: Colloquium with SHELLEY JACKSON. Jackson is an internationally recognized writer, electronic artist, and theorist and practitioner of new performance media. Her work includes Patchwork Girl (a hypertext refashioning of Frankenstein, told–in part–from the vantage point of the female monster), and “Skin,” a short story “published” as individual words tattooed onto the skin of willing participants. The colloqium is an opportunity to meet her and discuss her work in a roundtable setting. She will give the English department’s Petrou Lecture that afternoon, at 3:30 in SQH 1120, entitled “Shelley Jackson’s Interstitial Library.” (This is the first of a two-part Petrou lecture series on New Media Storytelling–look for SCOTT McCLOUD, author of Understanding Comics and Reinventing Comics, on May 2.)

View MITH’s complete Spring Speakers Schedule here:

http://mith2.umd.edu/programs/mith_speakers_spring_2006.pdf

Contact: Neil Fraistat, Acting Director, MITH (www.mith.umd.edu, mith@umd.edu, 5-5896).