In the Vivero Digital Fellows Program at Grinnell College, digital scholarship intersects with social justice through a commitment to nurturing diversity in digital humanities projects and the community of digital humanities practitioners. But preparing students to truly collaborate on critical digital humanities projects requires more than an introduction to the most common tools and basic workplace expectations. What types of training and what types of projects are most aligned with those goals? Now entering our fifth year, we have recruited, trained, and mentored multiple cohorts of undergraduate fellows who are paired as collaborators on faculty/staff digital projects. This panel will explore the lessons learned and open questions of preparing and supporting fellows as they navigate the communication, creation, and constant learning inherent in digital scholarship. Program co-leads Liz Rodrigues and Tierney Steelberg will present an overview of the program’s history and current model, which represents iterative adaptation to student input and campus needs. They will be joined by 2-3 current undergraduate fellows who will reflect on their experiences with the hands-on training, digital humanities coursework, project collaboration, and peer mentoring that are all part of their role. We would welcome the opportunity to use some of our time to have a conversation with attendees about what types of training and support models they have found or are trying to implement to help students give and get the most that they can from their digital scholarship work.
Presenters: Liz Rodrigues (Grinnell College), Tierney Steelberg (Grinnell College), Feven Getachew (Grinnell College), & Claire Burns (Grinnell College)