APPLICATIONS

The Institute for Computing in Humanities, Arts and Social Science (I-CHASS) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has been awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Digital Humanities Start-Up Grant to develop a database of 1,000 historical maps illustrating the trajectory of colonization in the Americas. The Cartography of American Colonization Database Project (CACD) will organize what is now a bewildering array of available digital cartographic images by providing a gateway for scholars, teachers, and students. CACD will create the database as a research tool, followed by development for use by a wider audience. The project is led by Illinois associate professor of history S. Max Edelson in collaboration with Vernon Burton, I-CHASS director and Illinois professor of history, and Alan Craig, the associate director of human-computer interaction at I-CHASS. While conducting research at the Library of Congress in 2007, Edelson was initially overwhelmed by the amount of available cartographic material and wondered how to make sense of it. He asked himself: "What maps are indispensable in explaining changes in cartographic representation over time? How can maps be linked together into groups to help answer critical questions in early American history? How can I, as an educator, introduce my students to maps and provide tools that will allow them to explore this world without becoming hopelessly lost?" CACD looks to answer these questions and more by providing an online guide for scholars and students. "This project is especially exciting, because not only will it lead to a practical database of content that is important in the humanities, but it also serves as an opportunity to investigate how technology developed at NCSA (the National Center for Supercomputing Applications) can be exploited to aid in provenance tracking, community building, and analytics in this discipline," said Craig. The Digital Humanities start-up grants, co-sponsored by NEH and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, provide initial funding for innovative digital humanities projects, particularly projects that advance the role of libraries, museums and other cultural repositories in online learning, research and teaching. The CACD grant is for almost $25,000. For more information on CACD, please visit the I-CHASS website: www.chass.uiuc.edu.