Master of Arts - Carleton University 2014 - 2016

 

 ➢ 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 Toronto 2010 - 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
  • examined video games as a new form of text.

Bibliographic Control & Cataloguing

  • Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 2nd edition (AACR2)
  • Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) and authorities
  • Library of Congress Classification System (LCCS)
  • MAchine-Readable Catalogue (MARC21)
  • Sears Subject Headings (SSH)
  • Dewy Decimal Classification (DDC)
  • for a full description of the work accomplished during this course, and to view the University of Toronto Libraries catalogue records I created
  • 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

English

  • 20th Century British Literature I
  • 20th Century British Literature II
  • Canadian Literatures
  • 20th Century Canadian Lit. II
  • Forging the U.S. Nation
  • United States Literatures
  • Modern & Contemporary Literary Forms
  • Restoration to Romanticism
  • Literature in History
  • Seminar in 18th & 19th Century Lit.
  • Gender in 18th & 19th Century Lit.
  • Emergent Literary Forms
  • Studies in the Age of Chaucer
  • Scottish Formations
  • Form, Genre & Literary Value
  • Finding a Critical Voice
  • Critical Practice

Anthropology

  • Prehistory of Canada's Native People
  • Anthropology of Gender
  • Social Deviance
  • Introductory Methods
  • Qualitative & Observational Methods
  • Quantitative Research Methods
  • Anthropological Theory
  • Classical Theory
  • Anthropological Issues
  • Development & Underdevelopment