Hi folks! As was established in class last week, my name is Hampton and I’m entering this Methods & Practices course without having taken the introductory portion, so bear with me as I work to quickly patch up the gaps that will inevitably exist in my DH-friendly skillsets. Consistent with this unorthodox approach to class registration is my academic and professional background. After finding myself unemployed due to the pandemic after years spent in management roles throughout the food and beverage industry, I set to work wrapping up a long-overdue Communications & Media degree and finally graduated this past semester. Throughout my grand return to undergrad, my work primarily focused on surveillance technologies, algorithmic accountability, and general “Big Tech” criticism, with each typically explored through the theoretical lens of neo-Marxist thought associated with the Frankfurt School and its contemporary Digital Age derivatives (e.g., my capstone project was titled Physiognomy, Facial Recognition Technologies, and Biopower). It is through the amalgamation of these interests that I came across the Digital Humanities field and though I don’t have a hyper-focused project of my own to pitch at this point, I’m ecstatic to begin work on one of the many excellent pitches I’m seeing here on the Commons.
Project Management: Though my history of project management has been confined to such environments as coffee roasting operations and restaurants, I’m fairly confident in the transferability of this skill into an academic setting. While I would assume the person who pitches the project would prefer to take on this role, I’d be happy to do so in the event that they would rather focus on research, design, etc. That said, I recognize that my inexperience in all things Digital Humanities has the potential to cause some hiccups here.
Design/UX: One of my main hopes in joining the Digital Humanities program was to acquire a technical skillset that would allow me to contribute to projects in this way but seeing as it has only been two weeks, I, unfortunately, have little to offer here. Though it may be irrelevant, I’m a decent digital artist and have used my illustrations for research projects in the past.
Outreach/Social Media: I haven’t been on social media in almost 4 years and am not wildly eager to return. But, for the sake of the project, I’ll take this role on if need be.
Documentation | Research & Writing: I chose to lump these two skills together because I feel equally prepared and thrilled to take on roles relating to either. Even outside of an academic setting, I’m a massive sitting-in-silence-reading-and-taking-notes enthusiast so I feel as if, at this point in my fledgling DH career, this is the area in which I could offer the most.
