➢ English, Specialization in the Digital Humanities
M.A. Thesis -- Digitizing the Pyrates: Making A Digital Critical Edition of Daniel Defoe's A General History of The Pyrates (1724 - 1726)
Examined how critical editing in a digital environment changes the manner bibliographic
practices are employed, investigates how digital critical editing impacts
eighteenth-century literary studies, and reveals the highly collaborative space
of eighteenth-century print culture where authorship was unstable, and literary piracies abounded.
Produced a digital critical edition using the Versioning Machine V.4 and XML encoding that allows readers to view a
diplomatic comparison of the changes in content, spelling, and
punctuation in the 1st - 4th edition of Captain Charles Johnson's
A General History of the Pyrates (1724-1726).
Conducted a User Experience (UX) Survey to gain feedback on the most intuitive and descriptive
ways to present the information in the notes of the edition, and to highlight the similarities and differences within each of the four editions.
For more details visit the section about my
M.A. Thesis.
Click on the underlined course title below to view the knowledge gained and the work performed in each of my degrees
Independent Research for Thesis
Developed an advanced understanding of British print culture in the early 18th century,
and the links and disparities between authors, writers, journalists, booksellers, and the newspaper the printing industries
Expanded my knowledge regarding the introduction of Copyright law in the 18th century,
particularly during the time period surrounding the introduction of the Statute of Anne
Investigated the changing nature of authorship and its ties to concepts of originality,
as well as its evolution over the last 300 years
Explored & gained a thorough understanding of the history and development of descriptive,
analytical bibliography through the works of Fredson Bowers, W.W. Greg,
Thomas Tanselle, Ronald McKerrow, Philip Gaskell, Jerome McGann, Peter Robinson, Susan Schreibman
Investigated the use of a base-text, critical apparatus and their application to various types of print and digital editions and editing practices, including:
diplomatic editions
parallel-text editions
facsimile editions
critical editions
hyper-text editions
digital editions
English
Acted as the main voice for the English Department's Twitter Feed for 1 week
Discussed the history of English Studies and how the discipline has reached its current state, including:
theoretical and methodological debates
pedagogy: grading practices and leading seminars
research strategies: writing grant proposals, and bibliographic tools (print and digital)
Gained approval for funding of the license for oXygen XML Editor in the Department's E-Lab
Wrote a review for the newsletter for graduate Studies (SiGN) about the Department of English's Creative Writing Open House & Showcase
Developed a deep understanding of how subscription lists were used to sell books
Introduced Digital Humanities mapping tool, batchgeo, to colleagues in order
to help visualise the geographical locations of individuals on subscription lists
Improved my knowledge of the relationships and interests of those
who bought travel literature
Produced a report about the subscription list for Joseph Morgan's
A Complete History of Algiers, many of the subscribers were nobility, seafarers
(members of the Royal Navy or associated with The Africa Company), booksellers and printers
Discussed the theoretical and practical implications of the digital humanities as they apply to literature,
and how digital media has impacted literary studies and production
Looked at video games as a form of literature and interactive story telling
Presented a seminar on E-book or P-books? Database or Archive? in which I discussed:
Print vs. digitized text, and facsimile digital reproduction vs. born digital work, in relation to older works and rare books
Different types of digital text production and reproduction
Yack vs. Hack debate, and fail forward mentality in the Digital Humanities
e-literature as a form of performativity and social text
Databases, as organizational systems vs.
Archives, as locations for primary source materials
Presented a case study of Edgar Alan Poe's The Raven, (one in print form, one a free digitized copy, and one a digitally enhanced e-book)
Digital Humanities
Grappled with the core theoretical, methodological and critical debates throughout the development of the field
Developed collaborative and team building skills through multiple group projects implementing DH tools including:
Text analysis: TAPoR & Voyant Tools, Juxta Commons, The Versioning Machine, Google Ngrams
Data Visualisation: Many Eyes, batchgeo, Gephi,
Content Management & Web Publishing: WordPress & CommentPress, Omeka
Presented a debate about the use and application of databases, libraries and archives in the context of DH, including:
The use of XML and TEI
The Walt Whitman Archive
The Shakespeare Quartos
The Rossetti
NINES
The Women Writers Project
The Blake Archive
Created a finding aid for collection development in pre-1850s medical books
Proposed the making of a digital exhibit
Please visit the Work Experience section of this website for a full description of the work completed
To view the finding aid, and and example of the digital exhibit please visit Projects section of this website
Master of Information -
University of Toronto2010 - 2012
➢ Library and Information Science
➢ ALA Accredited
Computers and Technology Studies
Learned MySQL, Python and HTML in order to create and query databases
Creation of "RIVetting Books" a database for an online bookstore with 146 titles searchable by title or author
Learned how to use metadata to mark-up elements of documents and add significance to data
Debated and discussed the advantages and disadvantages of Web 2.0 and the semantic web
Studied the difference between structural, descriptive and administrative metadata
Became proficient in the use of XML and RDF's
Introduced to Metadata schemas, including:
DC - Dublin Core
MPEG4 - Moving Picture Experts Group
TEI - Text Encoding Initiative
Book History and Textual Studies
Introduction to different techniques of book production including:
Binding and sewing materials and techniques
Paper making: cotton rag and wood pulp
Illustration techniques: Relief, intaglio and planographic techniques
Printing - including pre and post printing press techniques
manuscript production
wood-block printing
type-setting
movable type
What makes a book rare and the time periods that define rarity in different locations
The evolution of different types of written documents throughout history
Papyrus scrolls
Mediaeval Manuscripts: Illuminated Books
Incunables: Printed books from 1500-1520 or 1540
Ink production
Provenance: Armorial bindings, bookplates & book stamps
Learned how to produce condition & treatment reports
Gained familiarity with the Canadian Association for Conservation Code of Ethics and Guidance for Practice
Knowledge of proper conservation, preservation, storage and care and handling techniques for print, film and oversized materials
Knowledge of proper materials for the exhibition of paper and film
Familiarity with agents of deterioration and how to protect against them
Aware of the need for disaster & emergency planning
Examined how printed books can be digitized and the problems and advantages of this process
Introduced to text encoding languages and tools using XML, HTML, CSS and visualisation tools
Used University of Victoria's (UVic) mark-up tool to demonstrate how descriptive XML mark-up could be used to create a visualisation of printers' ornaments and aid in research about print history and textual studies
Produced an interactive annotation for the headpiece from recto 7 of Charles Johnson's
A General History of the Lives and Adventures of the Most Famous Highwaymen, Murderers, Street-Robbers &c, 2nd ed. (1742).
Investigated the future of the book with a particular focus on how e-books and e-book readers have drawn from print history and will influence the future of textual studies and the field of digital humanities
Learned how to use XML and descriptive mark-up as a tool for textual commentary, digitization and database design
Produced an analytical bibliography that examined variances in 3 of the early editions of the Captain Charles Johnson’s A General History of the Pyrates.
The three books examined are from 1724, 1726 (two volumes) and 1742
Created quasi-facsimile transcriptions for each title page
Produced collation statements for each text
Produced quasi-facsimile transcriptions for the Contents of each work
Described illustrations, paper, watermarks, type, and binding for each work
Honours Bachelor of Arts - University of Guelph 2003 - 2008
➢ English major
➢ Anthropology minor
Honours English Essay: We Three Queens (Creative Writing Project)
Gained departmental approval to pursue a Creative Writing project
Sought out two supervisors in Creative Writing
Completed a proposal and plot outline
Produced a first and second draft of 80 pages
Currently editing a third draft of what is now a 300 page novel